The physical world is not a collection of isolated objects. It is a stream of interactions. A customer operating a vending machine.A guest occupying a table.An employee handling food.A container left on the floor.A person looking at a menu board.A car entering another vehicle’s blind spot.A robot aligning a tool with an object. In each case, the important signal is not the presence of a single object. The value comes from understanding how people, objects, places, and processes relate to each...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Spain won the World Cup this Sunday in dramatic fashion, securing a 1-0 win against Argentina with a goal in the 106th minute. Congratulations to Spain, and my apologies to the Argentina fans reading this. But aside from stellar soccer, the World Cup also brought an interesting development to the restaurant industry. For 6 weeks, restaurants ranging from quick service to fine dining started airing the game. The result was watch parties that rivaled those of sports bars. The best part? It...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
On Father’s Day 2025, Cali BBQ introduced a new kind of teammate: Shawn AI, a customized Palona AI voice agent modeled after founder Shawn Walchef. While the restaurant team focused on smoking meat, serving guests, and keeping up with its busiest day of the year, Shawn AI answered more than 150 calls, handled orders, and made sure customers were not met with a busy signal. It was an important first test. Shawn AI showed that an AI agent could operate in a real restaurant, under real pressure,...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Every so often, someone asks me the same question. You were the CTO at Tinder. Why didn't you just build another dating app? I understand why they ask. I joined Tinder in 2016 after years at Yahoo, where I was a VP of Engineering. At the time, the move puzzled people. Yahoo was large and established. Tinder was smaller, scrappier, and carried plenty of negative press. From the outside, it looked like a step down. To me, it was never about company size. It was about the problem. What Actually...
3 months ago • 3 min read
A report came out this week and I have not been able to stop thinking about it. Jersey Mike's just topped the 2026 American Customer Satisfaction Index, dethroning Chick-fil-A for the first time in eleven years. Most people are crediting the sandwiches and the friendly staff. But the real secret is the technology running behind the scenes. Jersey Mike's Has Been Investing in Technology Since Day One Years ago, Jersey Mike's took an unconventional approach. Jersey Mike's invested heavily to...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Last night, the New York Knicks won their first NBA championship in 53 years. Not because they got lucky, but because they built a system that held up under pressure. That's exactly the lesson every restaurant operator needs to hear right now. They Built Something That Doesn't Break Five times this postseason, the Knicks fell behind by double digits. Five times, they came back. Not through luck or one great performance, but because their system kept functioning when the pressure spiked....
3 months ago • 1 min read
Building a company is ultimately about bringing together the right people at the right moment. Today, I'm excited to share that Jason Jiang has joined Palona as our Head of Product Engineering. Jason spent the last ten years at Facebook/Meta, where he helped build and scale Facebook Groups from a few million users into one of the world's largest community products, reaching over a billion active users. More recently, he led Meta's GenAI work for Groups, bringing new AI-powered experiences to...
3 months ago • 2 min read
I recently visited the Tesla Diner in Hollywood, and I have to say: it is quite an experience. Not just because of the food, the cars charging, or Optimus robots displayed outside. It was interesting because it felt like a larger trend coming to life in real time. Tesla is not the only brand expanding into restaurants. RH has built restaurants into its design galleries. Ralph Lauren has Ralph's Coffee and fine-dining concepts like The Polo Bar. Luxury brands, lifestyle brands, and now...
3 months ago • 2 min read
This week I had the chance to attend the 2026 Domino's Worldwide Rally in Las Vegas with our partner, Pizza Cloud. The event only happens once every two years, and I left deeply impressed. As someone building AI for restaurants, I spend a lot of time thinking about technology, operations, and scale. But what struck me most at Domino's wasn't technology. It was culture. Here are four things that stayed with me. 1. Positive competitiveness is part of the culture People were proudly talking...
4 months ago • 1 min read
