Scottsdale-based startup Sinatra, which has created an all-in-one hospitality platform, has tapped an insurance and hospitality industry leader in the Valley to join its executive team as it launches a new product.
Sinatra founders Adam Laor and Brian Pierce named David DeLorenzo the company's chief revenue officer at its Voice of Hospitality event held Oct. 25 at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.
DeLorenzo, who is part of Sinatra’s founding team and CEO of Phoenix-based Bar and Restaurant Insurance, has more than 20 years of insurance and hospitality industry experience.
“David has been a part of our founding team since the onset and we are thrilled to have him officially join us in a much bigger and more impactful way,” Laor said in a statement. “We’re excited to see him take the community and brand he’s built in this niche and scale it on a national level with a piece of software that will change the industry.”
Sinatra was founded in 2021 and has raised a total of $2.5 million, including a pre-seed extension this summer led by 1517 Fund with participation from Illinois Casualty Co. and angel investors, including entrepreneur Eric Ries and former executives at Toast, Opendoor and Snapchat. AZ Inno highlighted Sinatra as a company poised for growth in 2023 in its annual Startups to Watch list.
DeLorenzo, who has owned 13 restaurants throughout his career, welcomed the opportunity to expand his hospitality expertise by taking on a more formal partnership with Sinatra. DeLorenzo's likeness is featured in Sinatra's Risk Management Suite — the company's newest product — as the character, "DeLo," which is DeLorenzo's moniker.
“DeLo” serves as a virtual compliance assistant in the app, helping users with audits, inspections, safety training and more.
“I have always wanted to create a system that gives added value to bar and restaurant owners and create ways to keep employees safe and motivated while providing a platform to document, regulate and streamline communication with their insurance carriers,” DeLorenzo said in a statement. “This partnership allows me to utilize my experience along with the power and energy of my agency to co-create a product that is free to the hospitality industry and good for insurance carriers, too.”
In addition to his new role at Sinatra, DeLorenzo will continue to operate Bar and Restaurant Insurance, according to a company release.
Sinatra launches new risk management platform
The new Sinatra Risk Management Suite — part of the company's existing app — is designed to help insurance carriers measure and mitigate risk in the hospitality industry, while providing technology for business owners to monitor employee and guest safety.
Laor told the Business Journal the new product was prompted by Sinatra's rapid expansion of its client base, which grew from 45 establishments to more than 1,000 over the summer, he said.
That growth is attributable in part to the company's partnership with Illinois Casualty Co., a regional property and insurance company that provides policies to more than 15,000 establishments nationwide.
Sinatra recently inked a new deal with Illinois Casualty Co. to include its new risk management suite with the agency’s insurance policies, allowing clients to manage documentation digitally, Laor said.
That deal is expected to expand Sinatra's presence to new markets nationwide.
"We've been live in Arizona now for a few months," Laor said. "In 2024, we're scaling across the country to tens of thousands of locations, and it's a very exciting time."
Laor, a 20-year-old entrepreneur, and Pierce, a hospitality industry veteran, initially developed Sinatra’s platform to hasten food pick-up times at restaurants but later saw potential for building technology for efficiency, savings, and training in the hospitality industry.
Sinatra plans to add even more features to its platform, including bottle recognition, allowing for automated digital reordering, and spill detection via camera technology detection to prevent slips and falls in establishments.
Those features will likely be introduced within the next year and a half, Laor said.
Early next year, the company is also launching a nonprofit, Healing Hospitality, which provides hospitality workers with health care-related resources.
"Taking care of staff is a big mission for us," Laor said.
