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For busy workers, finding a lunch spot that can deliver a quick and satisfying experience can be challenging. For those who want to enjoy a sit-down restaurant but are tight on time, waiting for a table and ordering can be stressful. By allowing diners to pre-book, pre-order and pre-pay for their meals, Allset works with restaurants to create an efficient and enjoyable experience in under 30 minutes.

Founder and CEO Stat Matviyenko launched Allset in 2015. Based in San Francisco, the company has 20 employees, 12 of which are located in Ukraine. Allset has raised $3.35 million through two seed rounds. SMRK VC Fund and private investor Alexander Chernyak led the initial round in 2015.  Compound leading the second round in 2016. FJ Labs, Metaphoric Ventures, Andreesen Horowitz also invested. Allset is currently available at over 400 restaurants in six different cities. Each month, a new city is launched and the customer base grows by 30 percent. By 2018, Allset is expected to have partner restaurants in every major U.S. city and London.

I spoke with Stas managing a company with operations on two different continents, what his immediate and future growth goals are and what are the biggest obstacles he’s faced thus far. He also told me what he values in an employee (he’s hiring!) and what skills team members of Allset can expect to gain.

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Danielle Gould: Why did you start Allset?

Stas Matviyenko: Our team has 5 years of expertise in building solutions for restaurants. We built a mobile loyalty program called Advice Wallet with 500+ restaurants in 4 countries, and a mobile payment app called Settle – the first in Eastern Europe. These two services formed the basis for Allset.

Allset was created to make lunch for our team easier and faster at nearby restaurants. How it works: you book a table and order your meal before you arrive at the restaurant. Upon arrival, the restaurant seats and serves you immediately. The check is paid, so you can leave when you want. It’s that simple.

Every time we dined out with Allset, we felt like VIP guests. We realized that people would love to skip the wait at restaurants and focus on amazing dining experiences, every day. Eventually, Allset has become the favorite way to dine out for thousands of busy professionals across the United States.

DG: What’s innovative about Allset? What differentiates it from its competitors?

SM: Allset is the only service that allows you to both book a table and order you meal before you arrive at the restaurant. Nobody does the same. Unlike table booking services and takeout services, Allset gives diners both the speed of takeout with the comfort of dine-in.

DG: What kind of growth has Allset seen over the last year? What has driven that growth?

SM: Today we serve 13,000+ orders monthly at 400+ restaurants in 6 cities: SF, NYC, Palo Alto, Chicago, Boston, and Austin. Our customer base is growing 30 percent monthly; we have a 70 percent retention rate. We’re launching a new city every month. We will have 14 areas in total until the end of the year: SF, Oakland, Palo Alto, San Jose, Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Chicago, Boston, Austin, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Our success is the product of hard work, persistence, and trust in what we do.

DG: What are your growth goals for the next 12-24 months, and how do you plan to achieve those goals?

SM: Seattle will be officially launched in May. After that, we will expand to Philadelphia, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego. By the end of 2017, we will have 14 areas in total with 1,000 partner restaurants. By the end of 2018, we’re planning to launch Allset in all big cities in the United States and serve 100,000 diners monthly. In 2018 we plan to launch our first city in Europe – London. Allset will completely expand beyond weekday lunches and will be serving dinners and brunches as well.

DG: What have been your biggest obstacles to growth and scale? How have you overcome them?

SM: Our biggest challenge right now is to meet the growing user demand for more restaurants to be added to Allset. We sign up and train restaurants online without being physically present in new cities. This allows us to grow really fast. Eventually, when we grow up to thousands of participating restaurants per city, we believe Allset can do to in-restaurant dining what Uber did to transportation and Airbnb did to hospitality.

DG: What does your team look like? How did you make those first hires?

SM: The team in the United States: Founders: Stas Matviyenko – CEO, Anna Polishchuk – COO, Pavlo Tiron – CTO, Dimitri Nikulin – CCO, plus Customer Success and Sales reps. The team in Ukraine: R&D, Growth and Marketing teams. Stas Matviyenko and Anna Polishchuk are experienced entrepreneurs who have been working together for 6 years. Pavlo Tiron, CTO, has 7 years experience in building high-quality products and leading dev teams. Dimitri joined the team 4 years ago and now lead the content and PR sides of Allset. Each one of founders plays a key role and possesses the knowledge, experience, and skills that help push the company forward. All hiring of employees in the company is done entirely through posting jobs on the internet: AngelList, LinkedIn, Craigslist, Indeed, Food+Tech Connect, and social media.

DG: What does your company culture look like? How have you built your company culture?

SM: Allset is a San Francisco-based company of technology experts and forward thinkers with a focus on improving the restaurant dining experience. Everything we do, we’re committed to helping people live enjoyable and productive lives.

Allset is all about technology and hospitality. On the one hand, we have a strong R&D team headed by experienced technology entrepreneurs. On the other hand, many former hosts, servers, and restaurant operators are working in our company. Moreover, to understand the restaurant industry better, our founders have co-founded a bar. We had an unused space in our office building, and we decided to do something interesting and maximize our return from the rent. We invited to the project our co-minded friends and started the bar from scratch. It was the first contemporary whiskey bar in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was also the playground for testing all our services.

From developers and designers to sales and founders, we’re spending a lot of time as regular diners. We dine out a lot because we love restaurants and food. This helps us better understand and more effectively address our customers needs as well as build our brand around cutting edge technology and amazing dining experiences.

DG: How are you preserving your company culture as you scale up?

SM: People are everything in business. It’s always worth the extra effort to find the right employees and to build your team with professionals who want to contribute with their time, skills and passion. They must share the same views and believe in your company’s mission. We put a lot of time and effort in recruiting people – from the very beginning when you review a resume, and up to the moment when you help a newcomer adapt to the team environment and processes. We’re thankful to have our great team today, and we’re always eager to make new connections.

DG: What will someone who works for you be able to add to their resume?

SM: Work at the company of technology experts and forward thinkers challenging the status quo in the hospitality industry and changing the way people dine at restaurants.

DG: What job(s) are you hiring for, and how will those positions help drive growth in your company?

SM: Designers, Software Engineers, Marketing and Operations Specialists, Sales Reps, and more.

DG: What kind of training do you offer for new employees who may be switching from other industries or who are just out of school?

SM: We mostly hire people with relevant experience from the restaurant and hospitality industry and food and tech startups. We have cheat sheets and training for young professionals who just finished school. It’s not rocket science and we always help new people learn and adapt.

DG: What’s your favorite interview question?

SM: Have you tried Allset?

DG: Why do you think it’s exciting to be working in food right now?

SM: We can talk from the restaurant tech standpoint as we work closely with the hospitality industry. It’s a great opportunity for everyone to support innovation, serve amazing people and change their lives for the better.

Check out exciting food tech, design, management, operations, development and food science positions at Food+Tech Jobs.