Keep pulling the thread on Aman Narang.
Toast had a market capitalization of approximately $20 billion as of February 3rd, 2024.
Toast's initial mobile checkout app was unscalable because most restaurants in 2012-2013 used on-premise, legacy POS systems from the 1990s that lacked API connectivity.
Toast pivoted from a consumer app to a full restaurant platform after realizing restaurants were manually managing disparate, non-integrated systems for point-of-sale, e-commerce, gift cards, loyalty, scheduling, and payroll.
Toast's first funding came from Steve Papa, the founder of Endeca, who committed $500,000 but disbursed it in $100,000 tranches and required his approval for every new hire.
Toast's early core strategy consisted of three pillars: a cloud-based platform, using Android for hardware, and embedding payments to create a viable business model.
Toast launched its broader platform product in the summer of 2013 and reached approximately $2 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by the end of 2014.
In 2015, Toast hired Chris Comparato, who had previously scaled the customer success organization at Endeca, to be its CEO.
Toast expanded its platform beyond its core point-of-sale and payments by acquiring separate companies for payroll, scheduling, back-office inventory, and AP automation.
Toast created an internal program called "New Ventures" to foster entrepreneurship and find new product-market fit, leading to the launch of products like Toast Retail, catering, and advertising.
Aman Narang believes that Toast's retail business opportunity could eventually be larger than its core restaurant business.
Toast's market share in the U.S. restaurant industry grew from 5% at the time of its IPO in 2021 to approximately 20% by February 2024.
Toast's internal analysis identified a $7 to $8 trillion total addressable market (TAM) in local commerce, including grocery stores, gas stations, and convenience stores, that it believes its platform can serve.