Five things we do. All for the same reason.

86x is a holding company with five arms. Each one solves a different part of the same problem: the restaurant business is hard, and the tools, partnerships, and people available to operators could be better. We're changing that, one vertical at a time.

86X Technology

AI tools for the unglamorous parts of the job.

Restaurants have lived without good software for the same reason they’ve lived without a lot of things — the math didn’t work. Building a tool that solved one specific operator pain used to cost more than the operators themselves could afford. AI changes that. We can now ship small, focused, useful software at a price that actually fits the industry’s margins.

86X Technology is where we build it. Every product in this arm is something we used to wish existed when we were running restaurants ourselves. Some are live, some are in beta, some are still being designed. All of them are built on the same belief: software for restaurants should feel like it was made by people who’ve worked the floor. Because it was.

FranForge.ai GiveGrow.ai ShiftMeal.ai Sous Chef People Partner

To engage: See the Products page or partner with us on a build.

86X Management

Skin in the game.

86X Management holds equity positions in restaurant brands we believe in and contributes to the work that grows them — site selection, franchise sales, development strategy, the parts of the business where twenty years of experience compounds into real value. We’re not day-to-day operators. We’re invested partners with the experience to help the brands we back grow the right way.

The model is simple: we do the work that helps the brand expand, and we share the upside. It also makes everything else 86x does sharper — when the tools 86X Technology builds get tested in brands we have equity in, the feedback loop is honest and the bar is high.

To engage: If you're a franchisor or restaurant brand looking for an aligned development partner, reach out.

86X Advisors

Twenty years of operator experience, on call.

For franchisors and multi-unit operators who need experienced eyes on growth, operations, or franchise development without taking on equity partners, 86X Advisors offers the same playbook 86X Management uses internally — as a service. We’re not a consulting firm in the traditional sense. We’re operators who’ve done the work and are willing to be honest about what we’d do in your shoes.

Engagements typically include: Franchise development strategy. Operational reviews. Growth planning. Technology stack guidance. Site selection. Training program design.

To engage: Reach out with the situation you're working through. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help.

86X Manufacturing

Real products. Real kitchens.

Some restaurant problems aren’t software problems. They’re physical problems that need physical answers. 86X Manufacturing ships products that solve regulated, persistent operator headaches — starting with ComplianceBoards.com, which packages every required compliance poster into one well-made board, ordered in minutes. Operators sweat every detail in the dining room — the lighting, the menu paper, the music, the plates — and then hang a stack of curling federal printouts by the front door. Required doesn’t have to mean ugly.

ComplianceBoards is the first product. It won’t be the last.

To engage: Visit ComplianceBoards.com for the current product, or reach out if there's a physical product problem you wish someone would solve.

86X Community

A room full of people who get it.

When we were operators, the most valuable thing we had wasn’t software — it was other operators. Calls at midnight, texts after a bad shift, honest answers from people who’d been through it. 86X Community is the version of that we wished existed: a place for restaurant professionals to talk to each other without vendors in the room.

Free to join. A premium tier for operators who want access to our recurring webinars and deeper conversations.

To engage: Join the community →