Boostly Raised $22M to Change the Way Restaurants Do Marketing

Shane Murphy wasn’t looking to start a business. He was working at a restaurant operations software company when he realized something—small and mid-sized restaurant owners were being outgunned. While corporate chains had million-dollar marketing budgets and loyalty programs optimized to squeeze every cent from repeat customers, independent restaurants were left guessing. They’d print flyers, send mass emails, and rely on word-of-mouth, but nothing felt predictable. At first, Shane envisioned a marketplace app for online ordering and loyalty programs. But like many early-stage startups, the idea quickly ran into a common roadblock: the classic “chicken and egg” problem. Without enough restaurants signed up, customers wouldn’t come—and without enough customers, restaurants