The Gastobiz App is an idea presented to us by an entrepreneur aiming to digitalize the whole gastronomy experience, from the second you feel a hunger to the moment your stomach thanks you.

It’s a timeless, exhausting and frustrating struggle. You’re with a group of friends or your significant other, you’re hungry yet choosing where to eat seems like the greatest question at that moment.
You invest a lot of time and effort in the choosing process and after you’ve finally chosen your destination a grumpy waiter or one who’s just having a bad day may make the whole experience a nightmare.
And on top of all these problems that need to be solved, there was one more motivation fueling this need for innovation: Nowadays everything is customer focused and customer centric, why hasn't gastronomy followed yet?

Together with our client, we set up to build an MVP that should help in validating not only whether our conventional gastronomy experience has the capacity for automation but also if this is the right solution for the above mentioned problems.

Approach

We accepted the challenge of our client and set the date for the Breeding: from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening to build the MVP.
For a good job, the right people needed to be brought on-board. We assembled a team of 3 ETH engineering students all of them motivated to tackle the presented challenge.

Our breedings always start with a Design Thinking Workshop and this Breeding was no exception.
The first challenge was to identify the key steps of the process.
After identifying all the important aspects, we had to prioritize these steps in order to structure the work we set off to do.
Right before dinner we were able to pin out the most important aspects of the gastronomy experience and ways to digitalize these to improve the whole experience from the customer's and restaurant's point of view.
The outline of the work and with a clear target in mind, we set out to develop over the weekend a mobile application streamlining the process for a hungry client.

Hacking

With a clear plan in mind, everyone knew what had to be done and we went to work.
Starting at 8 am on a sunny Saturday morning going all the way until 11 pm and Sunday from 8 am until delivery at 7 pm.
And as usual we indulged ourselves with visits to Zürich’s finest restaurants (one of many perks we offer our Breeders).

Simultaneously we developed the backend of the application using Python and Flask and the front end using React Native.
We chose a cross-platform approach to make the testing accessible on the major mobile operating softwares.

Outcome

After a lot of Red Bulls and hard work, we were successful in automating the process and the prototype was ready. With the help of this prototype, the energized entrepreneur behind the idea could go ahead and investigate in the real world with real people the viability of this innovation.

We wish Franco all the best of luck in pursuing his promising ideas and ventures and hope to see more amazing ideas we could help. If you too have an idea and wish to get a prototype, get in touch with us under info@unicorn-labs.ch !

If you'd like to read more about similar projects, check out this Breeding for kids' experiences at museums or how you could soon be choosing the right wine.

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