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After success in New York and San Francisco, Cover, a mobile app that enables diners to pay for their meals without waiting for a check, has launched in L.A.
Founded in 2012, the startup has partnered with 30 of the top local restaurants, including Republique, Kendall’s Brasserie and Bar, and Porta Via. Mark Egerman, co-founder of Cover, said the company works with 175 restaurants in New York and 75 in San Francisco. L.A. was chosen as the third market partly because of its “incredible dining scene,” Egerman said.
He said the idea for Cover, which is free to restaurants and diners, came three years ago when he and co-founder Andrew Cove were marveling at the convenience of exiting an Uber vehicle. Uber had figured out a seamless integrated payment system, Egerman said. The two co-founders — Egerman working then in mobile payments for the federal government — wondered what other inconvenience could be solved by such technology.
“Waiting for the check and splitting a bill multiple ways is generally the low point of the meal,” Egerman said. “We take that step away so people can focus on what is most important: the food, the company you’re sharing it with, the ambiance, the service, and so on.”
At restaurants that use Cover, customers simply create a table on the mobile app and tell their server they choose to pay with Cover. Just like that, payment is automatically handled.
Users can set a default tip rate. They can adjust the tip for individual meals at their discretion, and they can choose to split a bill with others. Users can link any type of payment method they choose with Cover, Egerman said, adding that the business makes money via a fee on each transaction.
By using Cover, diners can leave as soon as they’re finished with their meals.
Open to everyone
Egerman said mobile payment is a crowded industry, though he added that Cover is the largest successful company focusing on meal payment. Similar companies, he said, are focused on reservations, limiting the amount of people they reach. Indeed, Egerman credits much of Cover’s success thus far to its open-to-everyone policy, regardless of how they got to the restaurant.
“We’ve really separated ourselves and we’ve really gotten to the scale we have by being open to everybody, by being something that provides the best possible dining experience for literally every single person in the restaurant,” Egerman said.
Furthermore, Cover works with some cash-only restaurants, saving consumers who lack enough cash a trip to the nearest ATM. According to Egerman, there are no limits on the number of customers who use Cover in a given restaurant on a given night. In fact, he said Cover works with some restaurants that report one third of their transactions come through Cover.
Growing, but growing smartly
With promising feedback like that, and with money remaining from its $1.5M Seed and $5.5M Series A rounds, Cover is looking to grow. But it wants to grow smart.
“We don’t want to overextend ourselves,” Egerman said, adding that the number of users and partner restaurants need to grow in parallel.
Egerman said a local team of four full-time employees will help that cause in L.A. He added the team has no specific target set for employee growth, though Cover is actively hiring, looking to add to its total team of 31 employees nationwide.
A common theme among Cover employees is a professional background in hospitality, Egerman said. In fact, one of the first L.A. employees happened to be a server in New York at restaurants that use Cover. She had relocated to L.A., and once she got word that Cover was launching here, she contacted the team about joining. Egerman said she is part of the partner solutions team, responsible for managing relationships with restaurants.
According to Egerman, the Cover team genuinely cares about people having great experiences, and as a result, the team can accomplish all its goals.
“As we grow, we don’t see any limits," Egerman said. "We believe that customers at all restaurants deserve the best experience.”
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