Appetizr – Made in Monaco for a better dining experience

NEWS.MC had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing two of the three young entrepreneurs behind Appetizr, an application that aims to streamline the restaurant experience in Monaco. Kresimir Miljak and Maurits Spaan told us all about this exciting project.

How did ‘Appetizr’ come to be?

Kresimir: Appetizr started with our CEO Vadim and I. We started Appetizr as part of one of our Master’s Degree courses at the International University of Monaco. We first had to submit a business plan that would help to solve any problems in Monaco. Thereafter, when we did our research we identified that there was a great demand for our initial idea and so we decided to carry on.

Maurits: We’re involved with the restaurant process, and we’ve lived in Monaco for about four years and have been to many restaurants here and the big problem we usually see is that the service is quite slow, you always have to wait to get your order taken and your order is often wrong.

K: So Vadim came up with the idea and since then we have realised the whole thing together.

Why do you believe in this idea?

M: The problem we are solving is happening all over the world so we are not the first ones with this idea. Around the world there are quite a few competitors of ours.They started before the coronavirus crisis already, and there was a lot of demand and potential back then which proved the concept. Then coronavirus arrived and restaurants had to close.

K: Now with the coronavirus situation, people want a lot less interaction with other people, so the situation has rapidly accelerated demand for products like ours.

M: We’re focussing on three things. The first is that we’re trying to optimise the process for restaurants, so that they have a higher turnover, and get the most out of their business.

Then we focus on creating a better experience for the customer, by making the service faster, create personalised recommendations and so on.

Then we focus on creating a better experience for the customer, by making the service faster, create personalised recommendations and so on.

Finally we focus on making the whole restaurant industry more sanitary, and we believe that our service can do that.

We’re seeing now that restaurants are slowly opening up again.

M: We’ve been lucky that in Monaco the restaurants have been open all this time, while in France and other countries they have had to stay closed throughout the last coronavirus period.

So you’re starting in Monaco, when will you begin to roll out your service?

K: We aim to start our trial period in August/early September, and we offered restaurants a trial period in which they would get a month of our service for free.

We’re now looking for partnerships and sponsorships so that we can also look to entice people to visit those restaurants.

M: We have partnered with several restaurants in Monaco already who are willing to try out the service. Currently, we are organizing everything with them so we can soon announce where you can find Appetzr in the Principality!

So essentially this project has been conceived and born in Monaco?

K: Exactly. We started Appetizr primarily for Monaco, we’re proud to be a Monegasque company. It wasn’t easy to become a registered company in the Principality, but it was worth it.

M: Monaco also has the image of being a smart city, and wants to be a step ahead in certain fields. I think that having our solution would add to that good image of Monaco.

K: Monaco is also very eco-friendly, and we try to align our goals in accordance to that. We’re trying to get rid of paper menus, receipt printing and all of that. We don’t want to create unnecessary paper pollution.

Customers will have the menus on their phones through scanning QR codes and their receipts will be digital.

Will this be an application that people can install?

M: Appetizr will be a web app, so when you scan a QR code on the table of one of our partner restaurants, the web app will pop up on your phone through your web browser and you will be able to see the restaurant’s interactive menu, from which you can order your food/drinks and pay for them.

Finally, is your company involved with any collective groups in Monaco?

M: We actually partnered with Monaco Foundry in April, and they’re helping us now to scale our business more. We also have a partnership with KPMG, as they have created a new start-up program, for which we are among the first members to be selected.

So now we’re just looking to create new partnerships and grow!

The only way is up!