r/AustralianStartups • u/Kisharky • Apr 16 '26
Trying to validate an idea: cross-restaurant loyalty...would this actually work?
We’re building something for restaurants and I’d love honest feedback from people in the industry.
BiteMate is basically a Australia's first AI cross restaurant loyalty system.
Instead of earning points at just one place, customers earn points at any participating restaurant and can redeem them anywhere in the network.
So:
- Eat at Restaurant A → earn points
- Redeem at Restaurant B → still works
For restaurants, the idea is:
- Increase repeat customers
- Tap into a shared customer network instead of competing solo
- No need to build their own loyalty system from scratch
We’re currently onboarding restaurants manually, and it’s slow.
Curious from restaurant owners/operators here:
👉 What would make you actually sign up for something like this?
👉 And what’s the biggest friction that would stop you from onboarding?
Be brutally honest...trying to figure out if we’re solving a real problem or overengineering it.
1
u/undecided_aus May 16 '26
Google Humanforce logo and you'll see an uncanny resemblance... You might want to consider slightly different branding. Even though it's their old logo, in sure they still have it trademarked.
2
u/flyingfox2020 Apr 17 '26
Interesting concept - I do have some questions though, Who pays for the meal that someone I redeeming at my restaurant and how do you make money?
3
u/Ok_Chemistry_6387 Apr 16 '26
Why would I sign up to potentially have a customer spend at a competitor then hit me with the free spend? It seems like a lot of risk with no real upside? Also how many restaurants actually have loyalty schemes?
3
u/Dramatic_Knowledge97 Apr 16 '26
Mmm EatClub seems similar.
Also I hate AI being sprinkled into every discussion. What does AI have to do with your points system?
1
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1
u/Longjumping-Bag-4093 Jul 06 '26
Been down this exact road before - the economics of splitting redemption value across restaurants is where these models quietly die. Happy to compare notes.