Debby Soo: CEO of OpenTable

🎥 Aug 20, 2025 📺 Say Grace Podcast ⏱ 1m 👁 403 views

About Debby Soo

Debby Soo, CEO of OpenTable, received the 2026 Hospitality ICON Award at the Hospitality Leadership Summit hosted by Boston University School of Hospitality on April 10, 2026. In a conversation with Dean Arun Upneja, Soo discussed her career journey and OpenTable's restaurant-first mission. She described the company she joined in August 2020 as "not shiny," noting it was in the middle of the pandemic when restaurants were largely closed. Soo criticized past practices, saying that during COVID, OpenTable waived fees but required restaurants to sign three-year contracts to receive free months, calling that approach "stupid." Soo stated that under her leadership, OpenTable's revenue per restaurant has not grown and has "declined purposely" to compete with flat-rate competitors and ensure the value matches what restaurants pay. She emphasized that restaurants are the paying customers, not diners, and that resources are focused on providing best-in-class software for them. Soo added that despite declining revenue per restaurant, overall revenue has increased every year due to growing the install base, hiring more salespeople, and improving the product.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Debby Soo's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (3 segments)

Debby Soo0:00

Very clearly these are the three or four things that we have to do to get back in this game.

Interviewer0:05

And what were they?

Debby Soo0:06

The first thing was pricing. We're expensive. Yeah, we were expensive. We continue to be expensive. And we had this pricing model that was like no matter who you are, you pay a dollar for cover. That's been a dollar since 1998, by the way. So there's no inflation. It's just been a dollar per cover. And what I realized quickly was like not all restaurants are created the same, right? Restaurants are different just like people. So there could be huge restaurants in Midtown, right? That need the demand because they need the tourists. They need business lunch, right? They're happy to pay for covers, right? But the spot in Soho that has 10 tables just needs software that works. Right. And they're hot and they're bursting at the seams. So why would we have one-size-fits-all pricing when none of our restaurants are of one kind?