eaters
qr-based digital menu system for restaurants.
eaters was a project i built with a friend. it was a simple digital menu builder. customers could add items, update prices, and customize their menus to turn their menu into a responsive web page.
we implemented features like bulk price updates, and scheduled pricing like happy hour. we thought it would be a game changer (it wasn’t).
the strategy
the market was full, so we focused on seo. instead of one general page, we made specific pages for each type of place.
if you had a cafe, you saw a cafe page. if you had a hotel, you saw a hotel page. same for bars, pubs, restaurants, and more. we also wanted it to look premium.
it worked… kinda. we got traffic, but getting people to pay was a different story.
failure
we messed up. our pricing was way too low, so our profit margins were super thin. we lost money on every sale. it was a huge mistake, but honestly, we learned a lot from it.
another problem was that we couldn’t answer the question: “why”. we didn’t really have a unique selling point. qr menus have been around for years, so why would anyone choose us over the others? we should’ve asked ourselves this before starting the project.
the tech
the business failed, but the code was good. we used node.js and mysql for the backend. the frontend was vue.js so it was fast. we hosted it on aws to be ready for many users (funny). we used polar.sh for payments, learned a lot about global payments and subscriptions.
well, it was a fun project and i learned a lot from it. so no regrets here. the project died, but the skills stayed with me.