Restaurants shouldn’t have to buy blind.
Heard Ops helps independent restaurants see what they’re paying—and where prices are creeping.
Snap an invoice to turn everyday purchasing data into real-time pricing intelligence.
Independent restaurants know the feeling:
Prices move, margins tighten, and there is rarely a clear way to know where you stand.
Heard Ops changes that.
Snap an invoice, and Heard Ops turns everyday purchasing activity into real-time pricing intelligence—helping operators see what they are paying, where prices are creeping, and where something deserves a closer look.
Built for real restaurant workflow, Heard Ops starts with the invoice already in your hand. We extract and normalize line-item data from photos and PDFs, then turn it into a clearer view of purchasing activity over time. No spreadsheet ritual. No guessing. Just better visibility into one of the highest costs in the building.
Why this matters.
One of the biggest costs in the building is still one of the least transparent. Prices move. Reps have discretion. Relationships matter. And most operators are left comparing notes by hand just to figure out whether a number looks right.
That may be how the industry has always worked. It is not a good enough system. Heard Ops exists to make purchasing visibility clearer, faster, and far more usable for independent restaurants.
How it works.
1.
Snap an invoice.
Take a photo or upload a PDF from the workflow you already have.
2.
We normalize the data.
Heard Ops extracts and organizes line-item details from messy vendor invoices.
3.
See what’s changing.
Follow pricing over time and start building a clearer picture of purchasing activity.
4.
See what stands out.
See where prices are creeping, where something looks off, and where you may want to dig deeper.
Why we built Heard Ops.
I grew up in rural Missouri, learned to cook at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, and have spent most of my adult life building restaurants, rebuilding them, and figuring out how to keep them alive. Catalpa first opened in 2002, and over the years, it has changed forms more than once. I eventually bought the building that became Catalpa’s latest location in 2021 and kept doing what independent operators always do: adapt, solve problems, and keep moving.
Heard Ops came out of that life. It did not start as a pitch deck or a theory about what restaurants might need. It started with a problem I have lived with for years: one of the highest costs in restaurant operations is still among the least transparent. After roughly 25 years of running a restaurant and managing food purchasing firsthand, I knew how much of this business still depends on incomplete information, rep relationships, and gut instinct when it should not.
If you run an independent restaurant, you already know the drill. You watch prices move, you wonder whether a number is really right, and half the time, the only way to check your instincts is to ask another owner what they are paying. People share invoices, compare notes, and try to piece together the truth on the fly. That is not a real system. It is a survival tactic. Heard Ops is our attempt to turn that back-channel, informal behavior into something structured, usable, and honest.
What made this worth building was realizing I was not the only one carrying that frustration around. The right people came around the problem at the right time. Heard Ops now has product, operations, engineering, and pricing expertise behind it, but the core idea is still simple: restaurants should be able to see what they are paying, where prices are creeping, and where they are losing leverage. That is the whole point.
Chef Liz Huff, Founder
