How Three Founders Are Reinventing the Restaurant Front of House

When diners call a restaurant, they expect a voice, not a voicemail. For years, missed calls have meant missed revenue, tables left unbooked, delivery orders lost, and guests turned away without anyone realizing it. The front of house, that first point of contact between customer and restaurant, has long struggled to keep up with growing demand.

Three founders, Gurveer Singh, Isaac Tom Nichols, and Adam Gamieldien, saw what most people overlooked. Their company, Certus AI, develops autonomous voice systems that take orders, manage reservations, and respond to customer inquiries instantly. What began as a small experiment to solve one restaurant's problem has become a new standard for how hospitality operates.

Their technology doesn't replace staff; it empowers them. By handling calls, Certus AI allows hosts and servers to focus on the people right in front of them. The result is a quieter, more efficient floor where the sound of a ringing phone no longer interrupts service.

Turning Chaos into Coordination

Isaac's work sits at the core of Certus's intelligence. With a background in computer science, he built the systems that keep Certus running smoothly across thousands of live restaurant environments. The real challenge wasn't making a voice assistant; it was building one that could adapt to the unpredictable reality of restaurants: custom orders, upsells, staff changes, and chaotic rush hours. His earlier experience working on AI at a drone company taught him how to design for environments where things rarely go as planned, a lesson that has become central to Certus's reliability.

Adam leads the startup's go-to-market direction. He's focused on showing operators the tangible impact Certus delivers, not just in smoother operations, but in real profit recovered. "Restaurants don't need more tech," he says. "They need results. Certus gives them that time back, consistency, and revenue they were already earning but never capturing."

And Gurveer, the founder who saw the opportunity first, grew up inside the problem. After spending years answering phones in his parents' restaurant, he saw how much money was lost to missed calls. At just nineteen, he convinced investors that small restaurants deserve the same level of technology as billion-dollar chains. His leadership pushed Certus into Y Combinator, accelerating its growth into a platform now powering restaurants across the U.S. and U.K. His philosophy hasn't changed: serve the people who serve others.

A Human Touch in a Digital Age

Behind the technology lies a belief that hospitality should feel effortless. The Certus AI system doesn't advertise itself; it operates quietly in the background. It handles questions, directs calls, books reservations, and verifies orders to be delivered before a human being gets involved. Customers have wait times and consistent service better than before, but employees are the ones who benefit from extra time to concentrate on better than multitasking.

What makes their work remarkable is its subtlety. There's no flashy branding or noisy marketing push, just quiet efficiency that restores balance to an industry built on human energy. Their progress proves that technology's highest form is invisibility: when it does its job so well that no one notices it's there.

The Quiet Reinvention of Service

The restaurant front of house has always been about grace under pressure. Certus AI hasn't changed that; it has given it room to breathe. Each founder's skill contributes to a single mission: allowing hospitality to feel like hospitality again. Gurveer drives vision, Adam turns outcomes into measurable impact, and Isaac anchors everything in precision engineering.

Together, they've built more than a startup; they've built trust between humans and machines in one of the most personal spaces in business. "When the phones stop ringing and everything still runs smoothly, that's when we know we've done our job."

Every reservation made, every order confirmed, every customer greeted on time now carries a trace of their work. Without fanfare, three founders have given restaurants a new rhythm, steady, calm, and quietly intelligent.