Next Big Idea winners make resto nutrition data easy to find

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JESSICA ROVEDA

The future of accessible restaurant information and nutrition facts is almost here.

Entrepreneurs Delmar Powell, David Pullar, and Richard Green’s Second Waiter mobile app was the winner of Next Big Idea, a contest held on Oct. 6 at Sheridan’s Hazel McCallion Campus where competitors showcased their inventions for a $1000 cash prize.

The unfinished iOS app is described a database which through the use of filters shows the nutritional and allergy information of 300 restaurants in North America.

“We strongly believe [it] has the potential to help people make a more health-conscious decision, and also live a longer life,” said Powell.

Second Waiter creators and Next Big Idea winners David Pullar, Delmar Powell, and Richard Green.

A demonstration of the app was presented to the judges and audience while each feature was explained by the creators.

In addition to nutritional information, the app is expected to include restaurant reviews, social media sections that involve user photos and twitter feeds, and an eventual user rewards feature.

Green began the group’s presentation by volunteering an audience member to find out how many calories are in Swiss Chalet’s tuscan tomato linguine using a physical menu. Then he used the app to compare how long each method took, resulting in a minute and a half with the menu, and 20 seconds with Second Waiter.

Through a matching system for each restaurant, the app is seen as an easier way to access nutritional information from restaurants.

“Some [restaurants] have PDFs, some have HTML files, some have pamphlets, some have their own mobile apps, but there’s no central database for all this information in one place, and we’ve done that,” said Green during the presentation.

The inventors said they spent nine months collecting information from the current-300 restaurants featured on the app, and plan on staying current by running an automatic script to keep the app up to date.

Green explained how he and his two business partners have already connected with nutritionists, health professionals, various food organizations, dieticians, and food bloggers to find ways to build the app to its full potential.

The 23-minute presentation of the app provided the judges with all they needed to know in order to make their decision.

Healthy fast-food founder and CEO of Freshii Matthew Corrin, who gave a keynote speech on business to students earlier that day, was a special guest judge for the event and was vocal about how he was impressed with the winners’ invention and Next Big Idea as a whole.

“[The contest] reminds me that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the GTA and in this school,” said Corrin.

There is no release date for Second Waiter at the moment, but a Twitter account and website without content are registered for the app.

The team said they plan on using the prize money toward marketing for Second Waiter.