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I sat down with Savneet Singh, CEO of PAR Technology (NYSE: PAR), a company he helped transform from a struggling legacy hardware with a small market cap into a thriving restaurant technology leader now worth nearly $3 billion in the public markets.
When Savneet joined PAR's board in 2018, he found a company facing multiple crises - from DOJ investigations and activist investors to negative customer satisfaction scores and just $3.4 million in cash reserves. What started as a temporary CEO role to help sell the company evolved into a remarkable turnaround story.
In this episode, we discuss:
The art of corporate triage and how to prioritize when everything is on fire
"When you have an acute challenge, it's a great forcing function... You kind of know that cash is the number one thing."
When Savneet stepped in as CEO of PAR Technology in 2018, he found a company in crisis - with just $3.4 million in cash, negative employee and customer satisfaction scores, DOJ investigations, and activist investors and board members demanding a sale. Rather than trying to solve everything at once, he focused on what was important and identified three core priorities: (1) securing immediate cash flow through difficult decisions like reducing 25% of the workforce, (2) rebuilding company culture by establishing new values of speed, ownership and winning, and (3) restoring customer trust through extensive personal outreach. For Savneet, when you find yourself in a crisis, the forcing function of survival helps clarify priorities - but leaders must take personal ownership of tough decisions and their consequences, setting a tone that helps build rather than erode trust.
Building conviction to make non-consensus bets as a leader
“On the first day we discovered that we were gonna have to put a going concern notice out to the exchange because we didn't have enough money left.”
Making bold bets isn't easy - especially when you're running a public company. Throughout the interview, Savneet walks us through some of his toughest calls at PAR, like the time he acquired a convenience store tech company that initially tanked PAR’s stock by 9%. Shareholders were livid, the board was nervous, but he saw something others didn't - convenience stores were becoming major players in food retail. The stock later doubled as his bet paid off (and continues to do so).
Another ballsy move by Savneet came when he noticed troubling inflation signs in restaurant menu prices late 2021, well before the Fed changed its "transitory" stance. Facing fierce pushback from his team and board, he tapped capital markets and raised capital to strengthen PAR's balance sheet, a decision that proved crucial when the tech market crashed in 2022 and public and private companies faced a terrible environment.
These stories show us that making non-consensus calls is brutal in practice. You've got the market doubting you, board members questioning you, and sometimes even your own team wondering if you've lost it. But this where Savneet excels and why he’s added more than $2B in market cap since the beginning of his tenure.
Key lessons from M&A strategy and product integration
"M&A makes sense if you come at it from a product lens... if you're doing it as a product strategy, I think your chance of success is much, much higher."
When it comes to M&A, Savneet has a different take from what you typically hear in tech. While most companies talk about "synergies" and "market consolidation," he has a simpler point of view: it all comes down to the product.
"Look, you can make the numbers work on any deal," he explains. "Every board meeting, someone can hire McKinsey to show you the cost savings. But that's the easy stuff - it doesn't actually drive value." Instead, he focuses on three basic questions:
1. Are we selling to the same type of customer?
2. Can we genuinely integrate these products in a way customers will love?
3. And how will we actually service these customers day-to-day?
It's an approach that's helped PAR sidestep the typical M&A nightmares - the culture clashes, the integration headaches, the "merged" products that never really come together. Sure, they might keep larger acquisitions running independently at first, but there's always a clear plan for how these capabilities will make life better for their customers.
"If you can't explain how this deal makes our product better for customers," he says, "then why are we doing it?"
The reality of transforming a public company while "changing the wheels in motion"... and a lot more!
"We spent over 100% of our software revenues on R&D... we were incredibly efficient, but we told investors, like we got to rebuild."
When Savneet first dug into the company's tech, he didn’t like what he found: their software was split across dozens of different versions, customers were unhappy, and the whole operation was held together with duct tape and a prayer. Rather than trying to patch things up gradually, they decided to spend more than 100% of their software revenue on R&D to reconstruct the entire product. "We were effectively betting the company on this rebuild," Savneet admits. It’s even crazier to realize they did this while still growing the business 30-40% YoY.
It was like performing open-heart surgery during a marathon. A key approach during this process was being brutally honest with investors about what they were attempting. "We told them straight up - look, this is going to be expensive and messy, but it's the only way forward." This transparency bought them the time they needed. Savneet was a new CEO and used his “permission” to try a new and risky approach.
Books Discussed:
"The Outsiders" by William Thorndike - A deep dive into eight CEOs who took road-less-traveled approaches to create exceptional shareholder value. Savneet considers this essential reading for CEOs navigating strategic decisions and uses it as a constant reminder of a leader's most important priorities.
"How to Make a Few Billion Dollars” by Brad Jacobs - A practical guide that resonated deeply with Savneet during his transition from investor to operator. The book offers detailed insights into operational excellence and business transformation from the founder of multiple billion-dollar companies.
"Know What Matters" by Ron Shaich - Written by Panera's founder and former CEO who later became involved with PAR, this book serves as what Savneet calls "a manual for running a great company." Particularly valuable for leaders transforming traditional businesses into modern, tech-enabled enterprises.
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