Early in my career, I watched as the restaurant I worked for slowly bleed out. Not because the owner was incompetent. In fact, he was smart, hardworking, and passionate. But the margins were just too thin. Labor costs kept climbing. Food waste ate into profits. Rent never stopped coming due. And when the doors finally closed, it was easier to blame external forces than to face the real issue: we didn't have the systems, data, or technology to make smarter decisions fast enough.