Executive Summary
The Restaurant Zone -“Think Craigslist…for Restaurants”
The Market // Financials
The classified ad market is one of the most underrated yet fastest growing industries. Just ten
years ago the entire industry was valued at $100 million dollars and is now worth well over
$92 billion dollars. Within the restaurant classified industry:
1) $1.1 billion dollars per year spent on restaurant job ads between Craigslist, Indeed,
Monster, SnagaJob, and CareerBuilder.
2) $366 million per year spent on restaurant property ads, on Loopnet.com.
3) $63 million per year spent on restaurant equipment ads through eBay and Amazon.
4) $6.4 billion per year spent on general restaurant advertising.
The Restaurant Zone, LLC (www.therestaurantzone.com), is an online classified ad platform
focused exclusively on the categories above. We have just begun to capitalize on each of
these, which makes us participants of a ~$7 billion industry. Given our team’s determination
and market adoption strategy we believe we can get a healthy percentage of the market, say
10%. Labor statistics indicate 4% annual growth in the restaurant job space and the restaurant
turnover rate is at 62.5%, which is the highest in the US economy. These metrics bode well
for The Restaurant Zone because despite economic swings, by and large employers are
continuously hiring and employees are consistently applying.
The Product // Traction
The Restaurant Zone website acts as a hub for food service professionals and dining
establishments, to browse and post jobs, equipment, events and more. The platform also
serves as an excellent space for restaurants to advertise in general, helping to promote and
drive traffic to their sites and establishments. Users of the Restaurant Zone will have the
ability to browse industry-centric listings without the distraction of spam, scam and irrelevant
ads that competing sites tend to contain. In addition, many websites that offer these services
for restaurants are pricey, and affordable options in this market are lacking. The Restaurant
Zone uses a ‘Freemium’ pricing strategy. All ads are free with the exception of jobs (which
are $15), making the platform highly affordable and attractive to the industry.
Our prototype has been active since January 2015 and has not officially launched or been
marketed. Despite this, we have been growing rapidly and have made revenues of ~$5,100
cumulatively as of March 2015. Our site averages about 14,500 unique visitors per month,
8,450 social media followers, and 630 active ad posters. We expect exponential growth with
the appropriate funding. We have attracted several customers from Australia, United
Kingdom, Canada, Thailand, and India. The potential of exploring emerging markets makes
this venture all the more exciting.
The Team
Our executive team consists of two young, highly motivated and experienced marketing and
advertising wiz's that graduated from Columbia University and Loyola University. Matthew
W. Rodgers (Co-Founder), studied advertising and business at Loyola University Maryland
and currently works in the fast-paced finance industry in New York City. Kenny Benavides
(Co-Founder), received his Masters degree in Organizational Psychology and worked in
business development for a personal development company.