Omaha Forums

By Cindy Gonzalez - World-Herald staff writer wrote:An out-of-town technology company is exploring Omaha sites to possibly open an office that could employ hundreds of people.

The company focuses on electronic restaurant point-of-sale systems. (Think a modern version of a cash register.) Its software also deals with restaurant management, inventory, sales data and loyalty programs, according to company materials.

The mayor said, "I will tell you we just landed a great tech company. Just found out the other day they're going to build downtown. And, originally it's going to create 200 to 300 jobs and eventually around 1,000 jobs,"

Garrett wrote:Potentially 1,000 employees downtown? If they do a new build that could be a big structure.

skinzfan23 wrote:

Garrett wrote:Potentially 1,000 employees downtown? If they do a new build that could be a big structure.

1,000 is about the size of HDR's current Omaha workforce. So maybe a 10-15 story building depending on the layout.

OmahaJaysCU wrote:I have heard Con Agra is the likely landing spot. A couple conversations/rehabs are on the short list as well.

Omaha Cowboy wrote:

OmahaJaysCU wrote:I have heard Con Agra is the likely landing spot. A couple conversations/rehabs are on the short list as well.

This is getting good. Exactly a shot in the arm the Downtown Core needs..

A very significant and exciting devlopment for downtown Omaha ...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

choke wrote: This isn't a done deal. The OWH said the company is considering Omaha.

iamjacobm wrote:Don't want to get my hopes up until something official comes out, but seems like a lot of smoke to this.

“We’re experiencing yet another exceptional year at Toast, all thanks to our loyal customers, employees, partners and investors,” said Chris Comparato, CEO of Toast. “Our team is thrilled to be recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. and will continue to deliver on our promise to be obsessed with customer success. Without our restaurant clients and industry-leading team, we could not have been ranked third on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™.”

In addition to its Deloitte 2017 Technology Fast 500™ listing, Toast saw the following in 2017:

Expanded its Boston headquarters, opened a Dublin-based office in October, and set plans to establish a new business operations center in Omaha, Nebraska beginning in early 2018; Announced raising over $100 million as part of its Series C financing; Added SynergySuite, YellowDog, Harri, PeachWorks, and more to its best-in-class partner ecosystem, the Toast API Partner Program; Graduated from the Forbes 2016 Cloud 100: Rising Stars list to the Forbes 2017 Cloud 100, the definitive list of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world; and, Revealed its third annual Toast Restaurant Technology in 2017 Industry Report. Toast offers advanced functionality to manage day-to-day operations of the restaurant, including quick menu modifications, real-time enterprise reporting and labor management on an easy-to-use interface. The Toast Restaurant POS features include revenue-driving tools such as physical and digital gift cards, loyalty programs and online ordering.

MadMartin8 wrote:So.....just call center operations? Likely the lowest paying of their jobs?


Well, I guess any little bit helps the economy.

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:I hope it's not just another call center.

Garrett wrote:It sounds like it will be more than just a call center, though there will be some aspect to that. The OWH article does specifically say "high paying tech jobs" or something to that effect.

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:Nice! Hope they find something downtown that they like. Maybe they’ll go thto route of leasing temporary digs until they build a more suitable building for themselves.

Omaha Cowboy wrote:It doesn’t appear to be a call center operation to me. Updated article from the W-H:

“A Boston-based software company will employ “at least a few hundred” people in Omaha in the next few years, one of its top executives said Friday.

The company, Toast Inc., announced this week that it chose Omaha as the place to plant its first U.S. corporate flag outside its home city. The company makes restaurant point-of-sales systems that take payments from customers and help establishments take care of inventory, personnel and other business-management functions.”..

The story link:

http://www.omaha.com/money/amazing-food ... 075f5.html

Ciao..LiO...Peace

MadMartin8 wrote:

Omaha Cowboy wrote:It doesn’t appear to be a call center operation to me. Updated article from the W-H:

“A Boston-based software company will employ “at least a few hundred” people in Omaha in the next few years, one of its top executives said Friday.

The company, Toast Inc., announced this week that it chose Omaha as the place to plant its first U.S. corporate flag outside its home city. The company makes restaurant point-of-sales systems that take payments from customers and help establishments take care of inventory, personnel and other business-management functions.”..

The story link:

http://www.omaha.com/money/amazing-food ... 075f5.html

Ciao..LiO...Peace

"As for Omaha, he said: “This is going to be a sizable office for us. We expect to have at least a few hundred (employees) in the next few years.” The Omaha staff will work in every aspect of the company — including positions in sales, software and customer satisfaction."

I feel better now. Kind of.

Omaha Cowboy wrote:

MadMartin8 wrote:

Omaha Cowboy wrote:It doesn’t appear to be a call center operation to me. Updated article from the W-H:

“A Boston-based software company will employ “at least a few hundred” people in Omaha in the next few years, one of its top executives said Friday.

The company, Toast Inc., announced this week that it chose Omaha as the place to plant its first U.S. corporate flag outside its home city. The company makes restaurant point-of-sales systems that take payments from customers and help establishments take care of inventory, personnel and other business-management functions.”..

The story link:

http://www.omaha.com/money/amazing-food ... 075f5.html

Ciao..LiO...Peace

"As for Omaha, he said: “This is going to be a sizable office for us. We expect to have at least a few hundred (employees) in the next few years.” The Omaha staff will work in every aspect of the company — including positions in sales, software and customer satisfaction."

I feel better now. Kind of.

As you should, lol...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

MadMartin8 wrote:I just keep thinking that "sales" could mean telesales (glorified call center), customer satisfaction (most certainly call center).... and that ultimately it'll be 90% call center, and 10% support staff. Naturally, we'll have to wait and see, but I have my "MTO (Trademark)" Pessimistic glasses on right now about the true impact we'll see.

NovakOmaha wrote:

MadMartin8 wrote:I just keep thinking that "sales" could mean telesales (glorified call center), customer satisfaction (most certainly call center).... and that ultimately it'll be 90% call center, and 10% support staff. Naturally, we'll have to wait and see, but I have my "MTO (Trademark)" Pessimistic glasses on right now about the true impact we'll see.

Take it at face value. They like the old market and downtown. They do pretty nice build outs with all the goodies. They recruit young staff. They started in Boston in a basement & now employ over 700. They have sales offices (read as remote sales people probably working out of their houses) across the country, including Des Moines. They are a fast growth company with big money behind them. They are recruiting not just call center workers for Omaha and it may just be that they grow other departments in Omaha such as IT or accounting. We really don't know their plans for Omaha except that it's the second location in the US and third worldwide. I still wonder what exactly brought them to Omaha. Cost of space? Cost of workers? Location? Obviously they didn't talk to Conagra's head, whatever that kid's name is. Are they going to move the whole company from Boston? Doubt it. On the other hand, stranger things have happened. Read the owh story about Winnebago. They are sneaking out of Forest City, Iowa and moving executives and others to Minneapolis.

As for Toast, whatever their motivation and plans they are opening an office in Omaha and plan to hire more than a couple of dozen people. I'm not sure I see a downside.

Omaha Cowboy wrote:

NovakOmaha wrote:

MadMartin8 wrote:I just keep thinking that "sales" could mean telesales (glorified call center), customer satisfaction (most certainly call center).... and that ultimately it'll be 90% call center, and 10% support staff. Naturally, we'll have to wait and see, but I have my "MTO (Trademark)" Pessimistic glasses on right now about the true impact we'll see.

Take it at face value. They like the old market and downtown. They do pretty nice build outs with all the goodies. They recruit young staff. They started in Boston in a basement & now employ over 700. They have sales offices (read as remote sales people probably working out of their houses) across the country, including Des Moines. They are a fast growth company with big money behind them. They are recruiting not just call center workers for Omaha and it may just be that they grow other departments in Omaha such as IT or accounting. We really don't know their plans for Omaha except that it's the second location in the US and third worldwide. I still wonder what exactly brought them to Omaha. Cost of space? Cost of workers? Location? Obviously they didn't talk to Conagra's head, whatever that kid's name is. Are they going to move the whole company from Boston? Doubt it. On the other hand, stranger things have happened. Read the owh story about Winnebago. They are sneaking out of Forest City, Iowa and moving executives and others to Minneapolis.

As for Toast, whatever their motivation and plans they are opening an office in Omaha and plan to hire more than a couple of dozen people. I'm not sure I see a downside.

As to what brought them to Omaha, this part of the W-H piece might bring some insight:

“Omaha appealed to Toast because of the city’s already established base of tech companies — like PayPal — and its business community’s culture of entrepreneurship, said Tim Barash, Toast’s chief financial officer.

And one more thing caught the company executives’ eyes, Barash said: Omaha’s restaurants.

“It was just meal after meal of amazing food and amazing entrepreneurs” when executives came to town over the past few months, Barash said Friday in an interview. “We’re excited about coming to Omaha and becoming a piece of the restaurant world.””..

I don't see any downside either.. and I don’t get, really, why the announcement is getting doubted or minimized. Omaha is a great city to do business in and offers a very diverse and robust economy. It doesn’t surprise me in the least why Toast decided to bring a significant office to Omaha. This is a WIN for Omaha. And if the rumor that another Tech company is looking into Omaha too (as OmahaJaysCU noted here), then the fact that Toast has decided to locate in Omaha, enhances the possibility of more tech companies placing Omaha on their radars..

The real question to me, is why Toast (or any other Tech company looking to expand) wouldn’t want to be in Omaha...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

Omaha Cowboy wrote:In any case, good get for Omaha and let’s see how this shakes out over the next 18-24 months. I’m pretty excited about the potential in that Toast coming to Omaha may spark other tech companies to take a long, fair look at the Omaha metro

Imissomaha wrote:Toast is moving into Empty space in the Gavilon

skers5xnc wrote:

Imissomaha wrote:Toast is moving into Empty space in the Gavilon

Nope. That is going to an insurance company.

The point-of-sale company servicing restaurants will put its Omaha office inside Central Park Plaza.

Boston-based Toast chose the red office towers that anchor the iconic image of the city from the Gene Leahy Mall. Eventually, its Omaha office will employ around 400 people.