Dining out in hospo-tech world

• Published date: 28 October 2021
• Publication title: Mountain Scene

The 37-year-old, originally from Palmerston North, moved to Queenstown in 2005 after finishing a bachelor of business studies, double-majoring in entrepreneurship and information systems.

With a job offer on the table in Queenstown at Xebidy, a web and software company he eventually bought in to, Weir packed his bags and moved south intending, initially, to stay for a year, ‘‘have a good time and head off to the next place’’.

‘‘But I’m one of those lucky people who got stuck in Queenstown for all the right reasons.’’

Xebidy was subsequently acquired and, at the start of 2014, Weir was looking for something new to do when he remembered the little French restaurant on Beach Street, started by restaurateur Fleur Caulton in ’92.

‘‘It was a two-storey restaurant, and all of the dining was upstairs, apart from one dining table that was downstairs in view of passers-by.

‘‘So they had this kind of little locals’ secret, where you could call up and ask if anyone had booked the first table of the night.’’

Those who booked the first table would be seated at 6pm, get 50% off their food bill, but pay full price for drinks.

Having used it a couple of times himself, he ran some numbers in his head and figured, using that concept, if he could get 100 restaurants signed up in New Zealand, across 10 cities, and diners paid $10 per booking, it would ‘‘turn into a good start of a wee business’’.

So he hopped on a flight to Thailand — ‘‘because you end up having a little bit too much fun in Queenstown, and get a little bit distracted’’ — arriving when the Royal Thai Armed Forces launched the country’s 12th coup which, in a way, was perfect timing.

‘‘The military took over the government and took over all the TV channels, which meant that I couldn’t watch rugby on the TV any more, because it was just the military talking, and then there was a curfew, so you couldn’t go out at night.

‘‘Basically I sat in a nice cheap resort on the beach in Koh Samui and I spent 12 hours a day, seven days a week at the computer just building it out as quickly as I could.

‘‘I wasn’t making any money while I was building it and I didn’t raise any capital, so it was just all sweat equity.

‘‘I just had to work my arse off and get it done and came back to NZ with a website ready to go.’’

Within the first couple of days of selling First Table in Queenstown, he had 12 restaurants on board, and within two months it was being rolled out in Auckland, though it took a lot longer to get going there.

‘‘I...