Restaurant Technology  ·  Silicon Valley

I FEEL
YOUR
PAIN.

I built a restaurant from scratch. I know what kills them — and exactly which technologies keep them alive. Let me help yours.

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The 21st-Century Restaurant Crisis

WHEN TECHNOLOGY
BECOMES YOUR
BIGGEST ENEMY

01

The Delivery Trap

DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub — they hand you customers and take 30–35% of every order. Your kitchen works. Their shareholders profit.

02

Credit Card Shock

Processing fees creep up, statements grow impossible to read, and by the time you notice, thousands have quietly disappeared from your margins.

03

POS That Doesn't Fit

Off-the-shelf systems weren't built for your concept. You end up working around software that should be working for you.

04

The Wi-Fi Blind Spot

Spotty guest Wi-Fi, no customer data, no loyalty loop. You're serving meals but building nothing — no relationship, no return traffic.

05

Security Camera Limbo

Your old cameras fail. New cloud-based systems want a monthly fee forever. You delay, and the risk keeps growing.

06

No One Shows Up

Tech vendors send a ticket, not a person. You need someone who walks through your front door, understands your operation, and fixes it.

As Reported by the Mountain View Voice & Palo Alto Weekly

THE RESTAURANT
OWNER WHO
TURNED AWAY
CUSTOMERS.

In 2016, I opened Yami Grill in a small Mountain View shopping center with a staff of three, seven tables, and a kitchen that turned away diners when the orders were right. Not from arrogance — from discipline. I had watched too many restaurants die chasing volume, and I was determined to survive by staying small, staying precise, and refusing to let third-party delivery apps eat my margins.

By 2020, the Mountain View Voice and Palo Alto Weekly ran my story. Not because I had grown into a chain — but because I hadn't. Because I built my own online ordering platform instead of paying Grubhub 35%. Because I sourced produce from a Buddhist organic farm in Fremont. Because I ran a restaurant the way I ran everything else in my life: with extreme intellectual honesty about what actually works.

The restaurant taught me things no consultant could. It taught me that your POS is either your servant or your master. That your credit card processor is either your partner or a parasite. That technology, deployed right, can let one person run an operation that should require ten.

That is exactly what I now build for other restaurants — starting with yours.

Mountain View Voice · Read the Full Story →
Yiyi Chen at Yami Grill, Mountain View

Yiyi Chen at Yami Grill, Mountain View, 2020. Photo: Magali Gauthier / Mountain View Voice

Yami Grill pork adobo dish

Yami Grill's signature pork adobo — made fresh daily. Photo: Magali Gauthier

"I see restaurants come and die. After long deliberation, I understand this is the only way to do it — to run as a family restaurant. Control costs. Preserve quality. Let time and word of mouth do the marketing."
— Yiyi Chen, Yami Grill owner & founder of FreePOS · Mountain View Voice, 2020
The Man Behind FreePOS

AN UNLIKELY
LEGEND.

Early 1990s
China → Beijing

Soldier. Scholar. Linguist.

Served in the Chinese military, then earned a BA in Modern Hebrew at Peking University — one of the first in China to study the language seriously. Was awarded the annual prize by Israel's Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature for translating A.B. Yehoshua's novel directly from Hebrew into Chinese. The first person ever known to do so.

1994 – 2000
Cornell University · Ithaca, NY

PhD, Near Eastern & Biblical Studies.

Crossed the Pacific to pursue graduate study at one of America's great universities. Earned his MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies and Biblical Studies at Cornell — the same institution that would later be my neighbor in spirit when I settled in Mountain View, California. The Cornell Chronicle covered my Hebrew-to-Chinese translation work in 1996.

Early 2000s
Silicon Valley

Tech Entrepreneur. First Silicon Valley Chapter.

Arrived in Silicon Valley during the first dot-com wave. Absorbed the technology culture and the startup mindset. Then returned to China to found a distance-learning company in Beijing — which he successfully built and sold to a Hong Kong-listed company (8055.HK).

2003 – 2013
Peking University · Beijing

Professor, Author & Think Tank Director.

Taught at Peking University for a decade. Directed the Institute for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Authored the standard Chinese university textbook Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Peking University Press, 2011). Headed Chinese government-commissioned research projects on Jewish Studies, the Bible, Israel and the Middle East. Led the only Chinese think tank to publish a Middle East Peace Index for the Chinese government. Member, Arts and Humanities Research Council of England peer-review college.

2016
Mountain View, CA

Restaurant Owner. The Real Education Begins.

Opened Yami Grill — the Peninsula's only Guamanian fusion restaurant. Built his own online ordering platform to avoid third-party delivery commissions. Sourced 80% of produce from a Buddhist organic farm. Ran a profitable, beloved restaurant with a staff of three. Covered by the Mountain View Voice and syndicated across the Palo Alto Weekly and Redwood City Pulse.

Today
FreePOS · Silicon Valley

Your Restaurant's Technology Ally.

Now applying everything — the PhD-trained analytical mind, the Silicon Valley tech fluency, the hard-won lessons of actually owning and operating a Bay Area restaurant — to help other restaurant owners survive and thrive. Not a salesman. Not a chatbot. A person who has stood in your kitchen and knows exactly what you need.

PhD
Cornell University
3
Languages Mastered
10+
Years Software Dev
50%
CC Fee Reduction
$0
Setup Cost
$5M+
Client Annual Volume
What I Do For You

THREE PROMISES.
ZERO CORPORATE SPEAK.

💳

Instant Savings on Credit Card Processing

Give me one recent statement. I will cut your processing fees in half — guaranteed — with full transparency on every line item.

  • 50% fee reduction, typically
  • No statement shock, ever again
  • Zero disruption to your operation
  • I personally manage the transition
📱

Your Own Online Ordering — No Commission

I built my restaurant's ordering platform from scratch so I'd never pay 35% to a delivery app. Now I build yours. QR code ordering, kitchen sync, SMS notifications — all owned by you.

  • Custom QR mobile ordering (qrmobileorder.com)
  • Direct kitchen display integration
  • AI-powered SMS & CRM
  • Free digital menu evaluation
🏗️

Total Technology Infrastructure

For new builds or full overhauls — I design and manage every wire, every camera, every access point. Enterprise grade. Local support. No cloud subscription ransom.

  • Cat6 structured wiring & city permits
  • Enterprise Wi-Fi with guest portal
  • 4K surveillance, local 90-day storage
  • Digital menu boards & background AV
From Restaurant Owners Like You

THEY'VE BEEN WHERE YOU ARE.

"Free POS set up our restaurant's online ordering site quickly and for free. We only pay a small commission — a dramatically better deal than any other provider we looked at."

David Haneda Owner, Yamitsukica Japanese Grill & Ramen Chain

"The team speaks multiple languages and works across time zones. Bug fixes submitted during development are typically resolved by morning — efficiency I have not seen from any US-based vendor."

David Rosenburg Serial Restaurateur
Let's Talk

TELL ME
YOUR PAIN.
I LISTEN.

No sales pitch. No chatbot. You get me — directly — on the phone or in person. Bring your last credit card statement and your biggest technology headache. We'll fix both.