Start-up app allows you to skip long bar and restaurant waits

Depending on one’s definition of lines, estimates are the average person spends up to five years standing in queue during their lifetime.

Three South Carolina entrepreneurs have hatched an idea that allows consumers to shorten those waits by buying time, thus reclaiming one of life’s most precious commodities.

Photo: An app created by Kory Keefer, Jacob Wisniewski and Wilson White takes the wait out of long lines.
Image Credit: Craig Mahaffey

“It’s a spontaneous way to avoid long waits and move to the front of the line at a variety of venues,” said White, an MBA candidate at Clemson University and one of RAAD’s co-founders. “The app identifies which venues offer RAAD’s guest lists. Then, you simply pay the identified price by credit card to move forward.”Wilson White, Kory Keefer and Jacob Wisniewski have founded RAAD, a mobile app start-up that allows users to avoid waiting in long lines at bars and restaurants by paying their way to the front door.

More specifically, the RAAD app will display the price per person to skip the line, allow you to pay for it and the skip pass displays on your phone. “Then, you simply show the pass on your phone to the bouncer and you’re in,” said White.

Keefer, a College of Charleston graduate, said the idea was borne when he and friends were lamenting over a long wait in line outside a bar at White’s bachelor party.

“It’s not for everyone, but for people who value their time, it’s a small price to pay,” said Keefer. The $5 to $10 it costs to move forward is worked out between RAAD and the bar/restaurant management.

“The three of us are believers in finding another way other than the conventional approach to addressing an issue,” Keefer added. “Waiting in line is an age-old problem, and we simply found a modern-day workaround. It’s a technology that replaces slipping the bouncer a $20 bill and management is supporting and profiting from it. We think many people will embrace it.”

RAAD was first beta tested at Charleston’s Midtown Bar and Grill. The three trolled the back of a long line, introducing RAAD to those who were in for the longest wait. The “skip” price they agreed to with Midtown was $10, and nearly 40 patrons paid to shorten their wait.

“People are naturally skeptical at first,” said Wisniewski, a Tri-County Tech engineering graduate and the app’s primary architect. “Because it involves a credit card, there’s a natural hesitancy. We had to earn their trust in a short period of time. But once we escorted them to the front of the line to show them it works, they were pleased and surprised with the outcome.”

Keefer said there’s little risk for the venues that provide guest lists through RAAD. “The split is very generous to the bar or restaurant. In reality, there’s no cost to the venue, they’re gaining extra money and the worst-case scenario is no one buys a skip pass.”

Today, nearly 1,000 consumers have the RAAD app on their phones and several bars offer RAAD’s guest list passes to their patrons. Creating an awareness of the start-up to businesses and consumers is the next task at hand for the business’s triumvirate.

A recent infusion of $5,000 will help address some of those tasks. RAAD was awarded the prize money as one of seven winners of The Arthur M. Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership’s Pitch Smackdown competition. Nearly 40 entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas to a panel of business owners and investors, who presented more than $30,000 to the fledgling businesses.

White said the MBA program is providing insights into growing the start-up in areas of accounting, operations and marketing. But he said one of the program’s most valuable assets is the networking that occurs with cohorts, faculty and alumni, which he says RAAD is eager to absorb.

“We will be tapping into ideas and feedback from the program’s vast network of resources. It’s invaluable to hear success stories, but just as important to learn from others’ failures,” White added. “We’re really looking for our next step in technology to enhance our marketability. We hope that through the university’s vast web of resources we can find that and a mentor who can provide guidance on growing and expanding our idea to other venues.”