Dimmi founder has returned with a new app that changes the way Aussies order and pay in restaurants

Dimmi founder Stevan Premutico last week revealed that he is back in start-up land, ready to have another crack at disrupting the industry he loves – hospitality.

After his baby (Dimmi) was acquired by TripAdvisor in 2015, Premutico stepped away from the business in July 2017 and took a twelve-month sabbatical. He spent thirty days walking 1,000km’s across the Camino San Tiago in Spain where he cracked his next big idea, me&u.

Premutico and his core team (many of whom are ex-Dimmi) have spent the past year working closely with a couple of industry insiders to inspire a new way to order and pay in cafes, restaurants and pubs across the country.

Combining the beauty of Instagram and the convenience of Uber, me&u is here to make the dining experience better, faster and more convenient.

Who else is behind this venture?

Backed by an impressive line-up of investors including Cliff Rosenberg (NED Afterpay, ex NED Dimmi, ex MD Linkedin APAC), Will Easton (MD Facebook Australia, ex NED Dimmi), Jason Pellegrino (ex MD Google Aus, Domain CEO), Mike Abbott (co-founder Uber Australia), Tim Reed (CEO MYOB), Neil Perry (celebrity chef) and John Szangolies (restaurant entrepreneur and founder of Urban Purveyor Group), Premutico and his team are set to transform the hospitality industry for a second time.

“At Dimmi we disrupted the way we book our favourite restaurants. Now we will disrupt the way we order and pay,” says Premutico, founder of me&u.

“It’s clear Aussies love to eat in restaurants, but the way we order and pay is terribly clunky and antiquated – whether that be trying to catch the waiter’s attention to order, waiting for the bill at the end of the night or the awkwardness of splitting the bill. It simply shouldn’t take five minutes to pay a bill! We will fix that,” says Premutico.

What exactly is the founder’s mission this time around?

While me&u is a tech brand, Premutico’s mission is centred around improving restaurant experiences and making the industry more profitable.

me&u takes care of the basics (the order & the payment) so the floor staff can spend more time on the stuff that truly matters – service, hosting, upselling and building relationships.

“Labour costs are so high in Australia (the highest on the planet), that inevitably we end up with one or two fewer waiters on the floor than we really need. Waiters run around tirelessly all night, service lessens, the customer experience drops and upselling doesn’t happen.

“We want to free up the waiters, improve the customer experience and improve industry profitability. That’s our ambitious goal; a better, more profitable industry,” added Premutico.

Is Premutico’s movement catching on?

Over 500 restaurants around Australia have already joined the movement including some of the leading brands in the country – Rockpool Dining Group, Boathouse Group, Chat Thai, Watsons Bay Hotel, Sonoma and Pablo & Rusty’s with roll-out currently underway.

“It’s great to be back in an industry that I love, with a bunch of people that I admire, cracking a problem that is the Achilles’ heel of our industry. I truly believe that technology can be the catalyst to a better industry that’s more profitable,” says Premutico.

“Hospitality is one of the great industries of our time but it is under threat from a rapidly changing world, and a rapidly changing customer. We need to evolve if we want to survive and thrive. There has never been a time more important than now to help move this great industry forward.” added Premutico.