Chuck Templeton's wife once spent about three and a half hours on the phone trying to book a dinner reservation. OpenTable was his answer. Diners could book a table online in seconds. Behind that simple service sat a computer system at the host stand of thousands of restaurants, managing seating and reservations. Restaurants paid a monthly fee for the system and a small charge for each diner the website sent.

Restaurant by Restaurant

Templeton founded the company in 1998. The bet was that both sides needed help. Diners wanted to book at any hour, and restaurants wanted to fill seats and know their guests. OpenTable started in San Francisco and a handful of other big cities. It spent years installing its system one restaurant at a time, city by city. Only then did the network effects take hold.

A Bright Spot in 2009

OpenTable priced its IPO at $20 a share in May 2009, in the depths of the recession. Restaurants were hurting, and few tech companies dared to list. The stock rose sharply on its first day. OpenTable expanded to more cities and to mobile booking. In 2014 Priceline, now Booking Holdings, bought OpenTable for about $2.6 billion, and OpenTable kept growing in cities around the world.

Cover: Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers' Lunch), Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a long lunch table (dining out).