From Eater to Blackbird: Ben Leventhal on Restaurants, Loyalty, and Rebuilding Payments
From Eater to Blackbird, Ben Leventhal reflects on building companies for restaurants and the lessons he’s applying to loyalty, payments, and scale.
a16z crypto show · Robert Hackett, Ben Leventhal
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Show Notes
Restaurants generated more than a trillion dollars in sales last year — but they don’t control the payment rails those dollars flow through.
In this episode, Ben Leventhal (founder of Eater, Resy, and now Blackbird) joins Robert Hackett to explain why that’s a problem, how loyalty and payments have failed independent restaurants, and where crypto fits into fixing it.
Ben breaks down:
- Why most restaurant tech misses the point
- How Blackbird uses crypto without making restaurants think about crypto
- What “restaurant-first” really means in payments and loyalty
- Why decentralization only makes sense at scale
- Lessons from building multiple companies in hospitality
- Why we’re living in the golden age of restaurants
- Plus: favorite NYC spots, founder productivity hacks, and the smallest hill he’ll die on.
This is a grounded conversation about technology, ownership, and the future of restaurants — from someone who’s been building in the space for over a decade.
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