As teenagers, Thomas D'Ascoli and Kyle Ruban spent nearly a decade working in local pizzerias, doing just about every job imaginable and learning firsthand what it takes to keep an independent restaurant running. They delivered orders, waited tables, bussed dishes, worked the counter, stretched dough, and, of course, made pizzas.
While working those long shifts, they were also earning degrees in computer science.
Then one day, the owner of the pizzeria they worked at came to them with a problem. His online ordering provider was taking too much from every sale through processing fees, commissions, and other rising costs. When he asked them to build a better online ordering platform, one that didn’t take a cut of every sale, they got to work.
He became their very first client.
Word spread quickly throughout the pizza community. Owners talked to other owners, and before long, Order Portal was powering the online ordering systems of many of the same pizzerias where Thomas and Kyle had once worked.
That experience continues to shape everything they build. Order Portal was built to give independent restaurants the technology they need to compete while keeping the ordering experience entirely their own, not hidden behind a third-party marketplace.
They may be software engineers by profession, but they’ll always be pizza guys at heart.
