Blackbird

🌈 Abstract

The article provides an in-depth look at Blackbird, a new app that aims to help restaurants become more profitable and provide better customer experiences. It covers the following key points:

🙋 Q&A

[01] Blackbird as a Tool for Restaurants

1. What are the key challenges facing the restaurant industry?

• Restaurants operate on razor-thin profit margins, with average margins dropping from 20% to 4% over the past 25 years.
• Restaurants face high costs for rent, labor, inventory, and competition from newer, trendier spots as well as delivery services.
• The industry has high turnover, making it difficult for restaurants to invest in employee training and provide consistently great service.

2. How does Blackbird aim to help restaurants become more profitable?

• Blackbird offers a loyalty and payments platform that allows restaurants to design their own membership programs and incentives to attract and retain customers.
• By integrating with Blackbird, restaurants can access customer data and insights to better understand their guests and tailor the experience.
• Blackbird Pay offers a lower 2% payment processing fee compared to the industry average of 3-4%, improving restaurants' margins.

3. What are some of the experiments Blackbird has launched to help restaurants?

• Gjelina House Accounts: Allowing customers to pre-pay for credits to use at the restaurant, helping to fund its reopening.
• Breakfast Club: A $85 membership that provides free coffee/tea at 14 coffee shops for a year, plus other perks.
• Bar Blackbird: A $50 membership offering a free drink at 15+ NYC bars.

[02] Blackbird as a Consumer App

1. How does Blackbird aim to provide a better dining experience for customers?

• Blackbird allows customers to earn loyalty points ("$FLY") that can be used as currency at any restaurant on the Blackbird network.
• The goal is to enable customers to feel like a "regular" at any Blackbird restaurant, with personalized service and perks.
• Blackbird Pay allows customers to simply tap in, order, and walk out without needing to wait for the check.

2. What role does crypto play in Blackbird's platform?

• Blackbird's restaurant membership cards are NFTs, and it has its own loyalty token ($FLY) and governance token ($F2).
• The use of crypto enables features like instant, low-fee payments and the ability for restaurants and customers to earn ownership in the network.
• However, the crypto aspects are largely abstracted away from the user experience, allowing Blackbird to function as a mainstream consumer app.

[03] Blackbird as a Business

1. How does Blackbird's business model compare to that of American Express?

• Like AmEx, Blackbird monetizes through payments and increases payment volume by creating loyalty.
• However, Blackbird charges lower fees (2%) than traditional payment processors, and gives restaurants and customers more ownership in the network.

2. What are the key challenges Blackbird faces in scaling its business?

• Onboarding restaurants and getting them to adopt new technologies and processes can be slow and challenging.
• Blackbird needs to continue developing tools and interfaces that make it easy for restaurants to leverage the platform's capabilities.

Overall, the article paints Blackbird as an ambitious attempt to use crypto-powered tools to help fix the fundamental challenges facing the restaurant industry, while providing a seamless user experience for both restaurants and diners.