By Riley Kaminer
When Jake Pelayo and Sebastian Brunet met during middle school at Ransom Everglades, little did they know that they would reunite years later to build a startup, in Miami no less.
Their paths diverged after high school, with Pelayo leaving to study at Babson and Brunet at Boulder.
But throughout this time, they were haunted by the ghost of an idea that originally came from an AP Econ project. In short: How can consumers and restaurants alike leverage the power of data to optimize their food and entertainment choices and offerings?
This seven-year journey culminates today with the public launch of Aro. The app, which today is open to restaurants only, enables these entrepreneurs to AI-generated strategic promotions to get more diners through their doors.
The startup’s name stands for “all restaurant offers,” a nod at their goal of consolidating all offers through one portal.
“The restaurant app is focused on being as simple and intuitive as possible,” Pelayo, the company’s CEO, told Refresh Miami. Users can quickly create offers like happy hour specials or even comedy shows, targeting specific audiences. Through Aro, the restaurant can then drill down deeply into the data they collect. From that point, Aro’s AI evolves into a recommendation model that ensures restaurants are optimizing their marketing strategy.
“This is all data that hasn’t existed before,” Pelayo asserted. In his years of user research for Aro, he realized that marketing was typically low on the priority list for restaurants – often a task delegated to a staff member with minimal experience, or a costly external provider. Yet data-driven marketing efforts can be one of the most valuable growth levers for restauranteurs. “This is a huge gap in the market that we’re filling.”
“A lot of other platforms exist, but they’re more like a light bulb than they are like a laser,” Pelayo continued. “We really tried to focus all of our photons to be able to cut through the steel as compared to light up the room, simply providing smoke and mirror vanity metrics of a million impressions. We want to see how we can convert diners and seat them at your table. How are these promotions doing that? How can we help optimize your strategies using our data collection?”
On the consumer side, which Aro plans to launch in a few weeks’ time, users will be provided with a feed of restaurant offers curated to their preferences with the help of AI.
Aro’s business model revolves around a tiered subscription structure. The exact pricing is still under wraps; but essentially, the more restaurants pay, the more data analytics they can access.
Why launch in Miami as the first market? Besides it being their hometown, the duo was drawn to our diversity of dining experiences and diversity of cultures. “We’re a melting pot,” said Pelayo. Another advantage of the Magic City is the sheer amount of foot traffic our local restaurants can get – with three of the top 10 highest-grossing US restaurants based in Miami-Dade. Local restaurants that are already working with Aro include Aida, Mosaico, and Ceviche Lovers.
Alongside Pelayo and Brunet, the company’s CTO, are two initial employees. Aro has been bootstrapped up to now and will likely be for the near future, as the team continues to focus on the product and on user acquisition.
“I’m excited to show the world how powerful our tool is and to really empower restaurants to be the best they can be,” said Pelayo.
Photo at top of post: Aro team, left to right, Sebastian Brunet (CTO and co-founder), Alexa Brunet (Director of Media Relations and Strategy), Jake Pelayo (CEO and co-founder) and Isabella Isaza (CMO and Creative Director).
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