Toast was built for one industry only, and by mid-2021 it ran about 48,000 restaurant locations. Its tablets and software took orders at the table, sent tickets to the kitchen, handled delivery, and processed payments. Those restaurants ran over $38 billion of card payments through Toast in a year. The Boston company went public in September 2021, as diners returned to restaurants after the first waves of COVID-19.

One Industry, Every Workflow

Aman Narang, Steve Fredette, and Jonathan Grimm started Toast in 2011 and launched operations in 2013. They believed restaurants were poorly served by general tools built for every kind of shop. Toast built its point-of-sale software on Android and added kitchen displays, online ordering, payroll, and loans through Toast Capital. Most of its revenue came from processing card payments. Each new product gave a restaurant one more reason to stay.

Forty Dollars and a Founder CEO

Toast priced its IPO at $40 a share in September 2021 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as TOST. Its 48,000 locations belonged to about 29,000 customers. Chris Comparato, who had run Toast for years, stepped down as CEO at the start of 2024. Co-founder Aman Narang, who had been co-president and operating chief, took over. Toast still trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

Cover: A Toast II, Anders Zorn. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a toast with raised glasses.