In late 2019, former food tech consultant and DoorDash Drive co-founder George Jacobs founded delivery aggregator and virtual delivery brand startup Acelerate that raised over $14mm from Sequoia during the pandemic. By ‘22, marketplaces like Uber and DoorDash began cracking down on such brands, causing Jacobs to pivot to helping restaurants with first-party online ordering sales with best-in-class native apps and online ordering sites. That product is now called Open and is backed by AI-powered marketing and support agents custom tailored to each of the startup’s 30+ SMB brands including Wake And Late, Loqui, and dan modern chinese. This week, HNGRY sat down with Jacobs to discuss the current state of online ordering and the traction his restaurant partners have received with their own Open-powered apps, online ordering sites, and of course, support and marketing AI agents.