State of play16 Aug 2019 12:01
I did exchange message with Aidan yesterday. On a personal level I do get the feeling to trust the man.
In summation he said they have recruited 10 of 12 territory managers (as announced), some of whom have started recently and some will start in a fortnight. He said it will take a new recruit one month to build a pipeline of restaurant opportunities and estimated that the restaurant numbers will therefor increase from the end of this month, along with new locations. He also mentioned that they had intentionally stopped adding restaurants in some locations, to have a short-term focus on account management.
Sadly I didn't (haven't) got a reply to my final email. I will let you know if that changes.
My take on it, is that they don't want to approach restaurants until the prep work is fully up to scratch - makes sense to me. They don't want to push advertising /social media until a good number of restaurants are in place (you don't want people's first impression of Bigdish to be unimpressed because getting them to download the first time is a lot easier than getting someone to re-download an app they didn't like) and you don't want to approach big chains, until you have the download and user numbers to show them you are a genuine contender that will bring them business.
I would echo the thoughts on the 50p income being too low on certain % discounts, I have always thought £1 for any discount level was the better figure, though I get the logic behind taking less if the restaurant is making less themselves.
Keep the faith until mid to late September and let us hope they have recruited well.
I would go in to a restaurant with the philosophy of getting them on board is the most important thing "this app is free to use, will bring you business, even offer just 5% off if you have to, but you don't want to miss out..." etc. They can be pushed in to bigger discounts later on and a natural market will form in every locale where restaurants will want to appear competitive with one another.