The industry rewards the layers that own access while underpaying the layers that create value. The series maps that pattern, piece by piece, from the supply chain to the consumer's couch.
Written for operators, investors, suppliers, and executives who can feel where the structural issues sit but don't yet have the language for them.
New here? Start with Part One and read forward. Operator looking for a tool? The sandbox tests a concept against the disciplines. The alignment test diagnoses who your stack works for.
By Johnny Auer, founder of Castle Peak Ventures. Twenty-five years across global food systems, institutional operators, disruptive suppliers, and emerging startups.
The arc
The series
Part One · Supply Chain Margins Who's getting rich off your $16 burger?Restaurants, distributors, and suppliers are running on some of the thinnest margins in the economy. The money is moving somewhere else. Here's where, and what the operators who are holding the line are doing about it.
Read the essay → Part Two · Technology Economics Who owns the customer?Restaurant technology went from something you bought to something that takes a cut of everything you sell. The business model changed. The margins didn't. Here's what that costs.
Read the essay → Part Three · Operator Strategy The escape routeThe delivery platforms own the customer. Some operators are taking them back. Here's who can, who can't, and what the next era of restaurant technology actually looks like.
Read the essay → Part Four · Hospitality Economics What happened to the room?The restaurant industry has never been bigger. And yet most of its food leaves in a bag. The dining room is emptying not just because delivery offered convenience, but because most of the rooms had stopped doing the work.
Read the essay → Part Five · Consumer Economics Who was the customer?You paid $16 for the burger that was $11 in 2015. You are not wrong about the price. You are wrong about what you are paying for. What we paid for, what we got, and what we tell ourselves about it.
Read the essay → Part Six · Operating Models What gets built instead?Five essays asked what happened to the restaurant. This one asks what gets built instead. A few operators have written the answer. Almost nobody else can reach it. The three disciplines that separate the survivors from the graveyard, and the layer the rest of the market still needs.
Read the essay →Tools
Companion to Part Six Operating Model Sandbox Twenty real bets on the survival map. Pull six levers and watch your concept move alongside them. The disciplines that separate the survivors from the graveyard are in the math. The map is what got built. The disciplines are what gets built next. Open the sandbox → Companion to Parts Two and Three The Alignment Test Your technology stack works for someone. The series maps why that matters. The diagnostic tells you where you sit inside it. Five minutes. No login. Run the test →What's coming
A handful of distributors, GPOs, and managed services companies now sit between most suppliers and most institutional operators. The supplier who treats the consolidator as a sales channel loses. The supplier who treats it as integration infrastructure and runs activation through it wins.
About Castle Peak
Castle Peak Ventures owns the connection between food and hospitality suppliers and the operators who buy from them. The thesis above is the lens behind the advisory engagements and portfolio work. When this argument shows up in your business, the next step is a conversation.
Field notes
Shorter takes, posted first on LinkedIn.