Today I want to discuss a company in a seemingly mundane industry, restaurant reservations, with a revolutionary business model. The company is OpenTable (OPEN) and it’s made waves with its online tool that allows diners to reserve a table at a restaurant without having to pick up the phone. The company, which has been around since 1998, currently has 20,000 restaurant customers in the U.S. and collects a $1 fee from diners seated from its website and 25 cents if the reservation comes through the restaurant’s website. The company also gets about 10% of reservations from mobile devices. (I’ve...
