Topi Topics: The Breakthroughs (Salt Lake City, January 26)
Topi Topics Live: The Breakthroughs is built around a specific tension: the food and hospitality industry is moving faster than it can absorb. Technology is accelerating. Guest expectations are shifting. Labor models are breaking. And the gap between “this could help” and “I can actually use this” keeps getting wider.
So we built an event format that compresses that gap.
Vibe Coding: Building in Real Time
We started with Vibe Coding—a live build session led by Sam Eder (Booster Rocket), alongside Josh Lillie and Jake Kulas (Databricks). The premise was simple: take a real operator problem and build a working AI application in front of the room.
The problem: recipe optimization for glycemic index reduction. A tool that helps operators make ingredient substitutions using simple, actionable rules—lower GI without sacrificing flavor or margin.
No pitch. No polished demo. Just the real process of going from idea to working prototype in under an hour.
What became obvious wasn’t just that AI can do this. It’s that the barrier to entry is collapsing. You don’t need a data science team. You need clarity on the problem, the right tools, and someone who knows how to structure the logic.
Databricks showed what separates functional AI from production-ready AI: evaluation frameworks to measure output quality, tracing to debug when something breaks, and deployment infrastructure that holds up under real traffic. That’s the difference between a demo and something an operator can trust on a Tuesday lunch rush.
Three Operators, Three Hard Truths
Then we moved into the talks—three leaders who’ve built businesses that hold up under pressure.
Zack Oates (Ovation) made the case that loyalty isn’t a program—it’s a relationship. Guests come back when they feel known, and when the promise holds steady even when the shift doesn’t.
Brandon Batt (The Tabletop Group) said what operators already know but rarely hear acknowledged: restaurants don’t break because of bad tech. They break when leaders are depleted, hiring becomes reactive, and burnout quietly lowers the standard.
Chef Hamissi “Mamba” (Baobab Fare) walked through what it takes to scale without compromising your values. Community isn’t a brand layer you add later—it’s the standard you’re held to when growth gets hard.
What Stayed True
Five things became clear over the course of the night:
Hospitality is consistency. People don’t come back for one perfect moment—they come back because they trust what happens next.
People break before systems do. The weak point is human capacity. Systems should protect people, not extract more from them.
Systems should protect the human moment, not replace it. Remove friction so the relationship can stay intact.
Growth tests integrity. Scaling is where you find out if values were real or convenient.
Relationships are the constant. Trends shift. Tools evolve. Relationships are what sustain the business.
What We’re Building
Topi Topics Live isn’t about inspiration. It’s about compression—bringing the right people into the same room, cutting through noise, and moving faster than anyone could alone.
We’re doing this next in Los Angeles and Austin in March. If you’re building in food, CPG, or hospitality—and trying to understand how AI, operations, and guest experience actually fit together—you should be there.
Thank you to Databricks for presenting the event and raising the technical bar. Thank you to Sam Eder, Josh Lillie, and Jake Kulas for leading the build. Thank you to Charlotte Hancey for guiding the evening with precision, Chef Bleu Adams for feeding the room with intention, David “Gonzo” Gonzalez and Francesca Marie Gallucci for curating the space, and Scott Paul for bringing Phi Stack and adding to the hospitality.
And thank you to everyone who showed up ready to participate. You made it work.
Let’s do it again.
About Joann Jen
Joann Jen is the Founder and CEO of Topi Ventures, where she helps brands scale at the intersection of food, hospitality, and technology. A former CMO and global customer experience leader, she’s led growth from boardrooms to back-of-house—including Restaurant Brands International and inKind (Fast Company’s Most Innovative in Dining, 2024). She builds systems that make hospitality hold up under pressure.
