Certus AI GTM brain

Certus AI sells a restaurant phone agent that takes orders and reservations and sends orders to point-of-sale systems.

category

Restaurant voice AI

market profile

  • text: Restaurants lose potential orders when staff cannot answer calls during service; voice ordering competes with staff and call centers.
  • text: The product spans independent restaurants, franchises and chains, with a focus on phone-driven revenue.

personas

  • title: Independent restaurant owner
    pains:
    • Missed calls during dinner rush mean lost orders
    • Hiring and retaining staff to answer calls competes with serving guests
  • title: Multi-location restaurant operations leader
    pains:
    • Inconsistent call coverage across locations
    • Phone orders must flow accurately into each location's POS

icp

  • text: Independent restaurants and franchise operators with meaningful phone-order or reservation volumes.
  • text: Restaurants using Toast, Square, Clover or SkyTab and seeking a connection to existing ordering workflows.

message pillars

  • text: Capture demand whenever the phone rings.
  • text: Reduce manual order handoff through POS integration.
  • text: Give staff more time to serve guests.

objections

  • objection: Will the agent get orders right and represent our hospitality?
    response: Listen to a live demonstration and test actual menus, modifications and escalation paths before committing.
  • objection: Will orders reach our existing POS?
    response: Confirm the specific POS integration and test end-to-end order submission for each location.
  • objection: Is the return worth the cost?
    response: Compare missed call volume and recovered order value against a location-specific quote.

competitors

  • name: Loman
    why: Restaurant voice agent for phone coverage and ordering.
  • name: ConverseNow
    why: Restaurant voice ordering automation.
  • name: Slang.ai
    why: Hospitality voice agent handling restaurant calls.

influencers

  • name: Gurveer Singh
    url: https://www.ycombinator.com/founders/gurveer-singh
    why: Co-founder and CEO with firsthand restaurant operations experience.

keywords

  • restaurant AI phone ordering
  • restaurant missed calls
  • AI restaurant answering service
  • restaurant voice agent
  • Toast phone order integration
  • restaurant reservation AI

voice

  • Direct and operator-focused
  • Empathetic to restaurant service pressure
  • Revenue and reliability oriented

signals

  • text: A restaurant is hiring front-of-house staff while struggling to cover peak phone volume.
  • text: A restaurant adds locations or deploys a supported POS, creating an opportunity to standardize call handling.

stack

  • Toast
  • Square
  • Clover
  • SkyTab
  • OpenTable

hiring

  • Business Development Representative

pricing

model: unknown

motion

sales_led

channels

  • SEO
  • case studies
  • restaurant events
  • LinkedIn

confidence

high

Founders

  • name: Gurveer Singh
    title: Founder/CEO
    role: CEO
    bio: Co-founder & CEO of Certus AI. I started answering phones at my family’s restaurant at 9 and helped scale it from 1 to 11 locations. Later, I co-founded a restaurant growth startup with Adam (now Certus CRO), helping independents grow revenue across takeout, catering, and event- but clients still lost money because no one answered the phone. That’s what led me to build Certus: the solution I wish we had when I was 15 and the kitchen was on fire.
  • name: Adam Gamieldien
    title: Founder/CRO
    role: Founder
    bio: Co-founder & CRO of Certus AI. Before Certus, I helped scale a restaurant growth startup with Gurveer, working directly with dozens of independent restaurants and closing our deals. We helped drive revenue across delivery, catering, and events - but time after time, sales fell through because no one picked up the phone. That’s what led us to build Certus. I now lead GTM and speak with operators daily to uncover what’s broken and how Certus can fix it.
  • name: Isaac Nichols
    title: Founder/CTO
    role: CTO
    bio: Co-founder & CTO of Certus AI. I got my start at 16 with a full-time internship at Falcon Eye Drones. Since then, I’ve built AI systems across logistics, telecom, and restaurant tech, always focused on automation and operational leverage. Before Certus, I was a founding engineer at Hive AI, co-founded 2 startups, and built a full-stack hospitality management system. That gave me deep insight into how restaurants really run, and why fixing the phone line had to be next.

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