Michael L. Atkinson
Professional Biography
About
Restaurant Technology Innovator, Investor and Entrepreneur
A multi-hyphenate living in Dallas, Texas, Michael is a restaurant technology investor, entrepreneur and strategic advisor to brands, investors, investment banks and technology innovators worldwide. Michael is a former investment banker, restaurant operator and restaurant chain CFO. He founded FohBoh.com, inFOH.com, RestTech.co, and Orderscape.com, a voice technology software company that has built a voice portal and restaurant marketplace with over 50,000 restaurants, to enable food and restaurant discovery and voice ordering using digital assistants, mobile voice platforms and other voice enabled gateways. Michael also founded, VoiceStar.ai, a Kitchen AI voice technology software and artificial intelligence company that voice-enables legacy restaurant business processes, beginning with VoiceINV™ to count and manage food and bar stock assets more efficiently. Most recently, he invested in and co-founded Ghosterus.com, a ghost restaurant operating system to power virtual brands at host restaurants.
Through his investment holding company, Bailiwick Ventures, Michael also partnered with Mike Love, lead singer and co-founder of The Beach Boys. Bailiwick , Mike Love and others, co-founded Kokomo Brands, a lifestyle branding, food and beverage company based on the #1 hit song Kokomo which embodies the spirit of Mike Love as an award-wining songwriter and legendary front man with The Beach Boys over the past 50 years.
Michael is a business accelerator mentor at bluestartups.com and foodandcity.org and former advisor to Creator, and Blendid, two innovative food-maker robot startups. As a former restaurant owner, operator and advocate for transformative food and restaurant technologies, Michael advises restaurant brands, private equity funds and technology companies on matters relating to conversational AI, automation, business intelligence, data models, restaurant technology and digital transformation strategies.
Personal
Michael is happily married to Kim Atkinson, is the father of two amazing and successful adult children, Sarah Higgins and Dylan Atkinson. Michael is an amateur chef, accomplished skier, scuba diver, beachcomber, backpacker and wine collector. Michael loves dining out, cooking with friends and family and visiting as many wineries as possible.
Speaking
Michael speaks about transformative technologies affecting the global restaurant industry. Specifically, restaurant automation, voice technology, restaurant delivery, and takeout, ghost restaurants and the changing nature of customer engagement using integrated data and analytics and modern data management models. For information about speaking, or consulting, please contact Michael through this website.
Consulting
Michael has been a strategic advisor to brands and technology innovators on digital transformation and refreshing technology stacks through RestTech.co for more than two decades.
See Speaking gigs below.
More information:
Speaking Engagements
RestTech
NRA Webinar
December 8, 2020
I am presenting a webinar on voice technology for restaurants, with current use cases, showcase VoiceINV™, the first, voice-enabled inventory app, share other emerging voice technologies and discuss why voice is something operators and marketers should embrace today. Voice-as-a-layer is the future for digital.
Reach Out
We love to connect with entrepreneurs and investors working and disrupting food, beverage, restaurants and hospitality.
Please Get in Touch!
The restaurant industry is evolving at a rapid pace and this creates opportunity.
Strategy and Partnerships
Digital Transformation
RestTech Investment Advisory
Corporate & Business Development
Corporate Finance
© 2021 Michael L. Atkinson