Building out the platform
Ritzer has been working on developing the Nigh technology since 2015. He and his family moved to Boulder around that time when his wife took a new job. He put together a team to work on the project that included co-founders Rob Conroy, the lead engineer, and Christian Dokken, who focuses on new products.
Ritzer said he has put in seed money to build out the platform. Nigh charges businesses $1.25 for each customer who shows up for a drop and a 3.5% transaction fee for credit card purchases, which are managed by the payment processor Stripe.
Nigh plans to eventually provide businesses more advanced features through a subscription. There will always be a free version, Ritzer said.
“We’ll never be an ad platform. If you’re an ad platform, your customer is the advertisers,” Ritzer said. “Our customers are the local businesses.”
A new Boulder business that has become a Nigh customer is Pasta Press, which opened downtown in November. Owners Stefano and Rachel Demartin have sponsored drops to introduce their restaurant to the community.
“The first drop was, ‘Hey, we’re finally open. Come and see us,’ ” Stefano said.
Ritzer said about 30 people showed up but the Demartins’ video was seen by thousands.
The couple opened the restaurant after years of lamenting not being able to find the kind of food that Stefano missed from his native country of Italy. Stefano, an engineer, and Rachel, a website and graphic designer, trained to make pasta.
They import flour, meat and cheese from Italy and make the pasta on-site.
“We use just traditional recipes. We have a lot of Italian repeat customers,” Rachel said. “We sell fresh pasta by the pound and sauces.”
Much of the restaurant’s business is takeout, although it has a counter and a few tables. Stefano said Nigh is a good way to spread the word to people who are looking for traditional Italian food.
“This is a tool to be able to get our name out there,” Stefano said. “Then people will talk to their friends once they come to realize how good it is.”