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WEST CHESTER — With his idea for a WiFi-enabled push-button refrigerator magnet, entrepreneur Gregory Panos believes he can make ordering take-out food easier than ever.
When pushed, his button’s wireless technology sends a preset order from a smartphone or computer to a takeout shop for delivery and automatically pays for it.
And that’s it. One touch and the food shows up.
The order is paid automatically with funds from a personalized account, much like EZ-Pass, and the customers receive an alert when their balance is getting low.
His venture — to date a patent-pending concept with a prototype — is called The Bite Button Co. and is the brainchild of the three founders of ThinkActBuyLocal.com: Panos, Raymond Steinbacher and Jeffrey Morgan. They formed ThinkActBuyLocal.com in 2013 as a limited liability company “devoted to helping local, small businesses grow and compete in this ever-changing business environment, with our mission being to provide products (applications) and resources that will allow small businesses to optimize all the latest technology.”
Panos said he was impressed by how big companies like Dominos Pizza employ technology to help their customers order online and wanted to help small, local businesses tap into that kind of modern advantage without all the trouble of learning computer science.
“I’m a firm believer that local business is really good for the community and the economy,” he said in a telephone interview.
The venture is now in the “crowd funding” stage at Indiegogo.com, a website where people who want to raise money can create fundraising campaigns. Panos said his company has invested about $200,000 in this project so far.
The idea for an easier way to order food for delivery came about when the founders ordered pizza for their office at 120 N. Church St. in West Chester. They realized that they ordered the same items on the same day of the week, every week. After some research, they discovered about 86 percent of all pizza orders for delivery follow this pattern.
“National pizza chains have the resources to create online ordering systems that make it easier for patrons to order pizza,” Panos explains on his Indiegogo page. “During our discussion, we discovered that we had all ordered from one of these national chains, not because of the quality of their product, but due to the convenience of ordering through their system. This is when the light bulb went on. Small businesses need to be integrated into the mobile landscape and connected to the world of social media. That’s where we come in.”
With money raised on Indiegogo, they plan to fund the initial production run of Pizza Bite Buttons and the integration of their proprietary back-end software.
“We have been working for a while now — from our first Frankensteined prototype to a more refined button — on perfecting the process involved in ordering from the Pizza Bite Button,” Panos explains.
Long term, they plan to offer other buttons for Chinese food, delis and other types of delivery food, but for now the focus is on pizza.
A Marshallton resident, Panos has 30 years experience in retailing and marketing. As an entrepreneur, he has specialized in many industries and owned and operated several restaurants, which he joked is probably a genetic trait because he’s Greek.
Steinbacher is the tech guru of the management team and the author of several books, including “Computer Friendly!” with which has helped more than 1.4 million people learn how to use computers in plain English. The electrical engineer’s proficiencies include custom programming, SQL database design, management and implementation, network management and troubleshooting, technical writing, website and product brand development using social media, SEO and traditional advertising, video production and editing.
Morgan handles many of the company’s creative tasks and has been a graphic designer and photographer for 19 years. He spent five years as an art director for Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City then worked for two different ad agencies and a trade show design firm. In 2007 he started his own ad agency.
To further their push-button delivery idea, the three entrepreneurs faced several obstacles besides funding.
For instance, they had to figure out how to make it work without tethering it to a specific phone or device, such as with Bluetooth technology, so that the button can be used even when the smartphone is out of the area. This enables parents to allow their children or a baby-sitter to order dinner while they are away, for example.
They also had to devise a way to make the entire process of ordering seamless, so that all financial transactions are automatic.
“In the matter of a few days, we felt that we pretty much had a solution. The button would act somewhat like an EZ-Pass used on highways for tolls,” he explained.
They decided their company would create the back-end dashboard, where participating vendors post menus. The patrons would activate their buttons by making a minimum deposit. They would then be able to choose a vendor and set up a standing order. When the button is pushed, the order is sent to the chosen vendor, and upon delivery, the vendor would be paid — less a small commission for the inventors — through the funds on deposit with the button. The funds would be automatically replenished at a chosen level.
“We then built a rough (very rough) prototype for proof of concept,” Panos said. “When it worked, we felt we had a winning concept, so we applied for a patent — and are currently patent-pending, — created a business plan and decided to crowd-source our funding.”
Their goal is to raise enough capital to manufacture the first 10,000 Pizza Bite Buttons and an infrastructure that will be capable of handling the growth they anticipate.
For more information, visitThinkActBuyLocal.com or visit their IndieGoGo,com concept page.
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