Four year birthday for First Table

The New Zealand business taking the global restaurant industry by storm has just turned four.

First Table was founded in Queenstown by Mat Weir. Four years later and the business, which has never taken on outside debt or investment, now offers half-priced dining in 1,000 partner restaurants, to more than 250,000 global diners.

The concept is simple: diners book early bird tables through the First Table website and pay $10 to get 50% off their total food bill.

Since starting with Queenstown restaurants, First Table spread across New Zealand, Australia, and, most recently, the UK and Ireland with London and Dublin joining the international cities earlier this year.

On Monday, First Table launched in Indonesia with 20 restaurants on Bali island. The service also opened in Cairns this week, following a rave review on 9 News in Perth recently.

On top of that, the business was named “Rising Star - One to Watch” for the lower South Island by Deloitte last week.

Weir came up with the concept for First Table after observing, time and time again, that restaurants often had slow starts to evenings.

This is a self-perpetuating problem because diners are more reluctant to go into an empty restaurant.

“First Table is to restaurants what happy hours are to pubs,” Weir explains.

“We help get patrons through the door early and ensure the restaurant gets their evening off to a great start.

“The discounted dining makes it easy for our users to be adventurous and try new eateries without breaking the bank. Once they try a place and love it, they become full-price regulars and everyone wins.”

With its growing presence around the world, First Table’s next foray will be in North America.

Weir has gone from solopreneur to today leading a team of 12. Five people are based in Queenstown and the rest live throughout the world.

Everyone who works for First Table is location independent and free to work wherever they choose.

“From day one, I’ve tried to ignore the ‘rules’ of traditional business to build First Table,” Weir says.

“We don’t believe in nine to fives and set offices. I’ve found that you get far better results if you simply give people the flexibility to live and work in places which inspire them, and entrust them to get the job done however they want to do it.

“First Table truly couldn’t be here without the team we’ve built up over the four years. I’m as proud of the team culture we’ve fostered as I am about the fact that we’ve helped a thousand restaurants grow and a quarter million diners discover fantastic places to eat.”

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