Raghav Poddar

Yo, have you heard of Raghav Poddar? Dude’s the real deal in the restaurant tech space. He’s the CEO and founder of Superorder, used to be called Forward Kitchens, and he’s been crushing it since he jumped into the scene in 2019.

So, here’s the lowdown: Raghav went to Columbia, studied comp sci, and was all about tech from the start. Before launching Superorder, he was at Columbia as a Research Assistant and even dipped his toes into software engineering at Qualcomm. Basically, he’s got legit coding chops and a brain for solving complex problems.

In 2019, he decided to jump into the startup world. He founded Superorder in July of that year, joining Y Combinator’s S19 batch, which is a huge badge of honor, honestly. YC’s like the startup Olympics. Right outta the gate, he was thinking about how to shake up the restaurant biz. Superorder helps restaurants build digital storefronts and uses AI to manage their online reputation and performance. Basically, he saw that restaurants were drowning in the digital age and needed a smarter way to stand out and keep customers happy.

Fast forward, this guy’s not just blowing smoke, Superorder now works in over 180 cities across the US, with more than 1,500 restaurant partners. They’ve processed over 1.5 million orders, so they’re legit making moves. And he’s got some serious backing, Foundation, Y Combinator itself, Floodgate, Slow, SV Angel, all the big VC names believe in what he’s building.

He’s raised a ton of cash too, $2.5 million in a seed round in 2021, and then a big $10 million round in 2023. That’s no joke. It shows investors see the same thing we do: Raghav’s onto something significant.

What’s crazy is, his process isn’t just about business. It’s about seeing a problem everyone missed, restaurants struggling to keep up online, and building a tech-savvy solution that’s actually expandable. His background gives him both the tech smarts and the grit to pull this off. Plus, he’s based in New York but active in SF too, always plugged into the startup scenes where the magic happens.

So, what does this tell you about him? Raghav’s not just some guy chasing a quick buck. He’s driven by real problems, and he’s got the skills to fix them. He’s all about innovation, leveraging AI and digital tools to raise an industry that’s been stuck in the past. That’s why he’s important, he’s transforming how restaurants operate in the digital age, and he’s just getting started.

No Cap, Raghav’s a name you wanna remember if you care about startups, tech, or just seeing someone crush it by solving real shit.