Shelly Rupel grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, acting as her parent’s tech support as early as elementary school. As she got older, she gravitated toward the idea of building a software company from scratch—the pursuit was something ingrained in her from the beginning.
While doing software development for medical offices, Rupel became interested in the transition from cash registers to PC-based point-of-sale systems. This inspired her to start her own company at 22 years old, working with national retail and restaurant brands to procure, install, and repair technology. She juggled this with the nightclub she owned, Utopia, which invigorated her desire to step fully into hospitality in a way that made sense to her—through tech.
“I’ve been involved in technology since the outset of my career, but the restaurant world grabbed me during my first job in high school, like many people,” Rupel says. “I fell in love with it and knew I wanted to spend my career focusing on technology for this industry.”
In 2017, after nearly two decades of entrepreneurship, Rupel joined restaurant POS system companies Toast, ItsaCheckmate, and PAR Technology and gathered invaluable experience at the intersection of hospitality and software. During the pandemic, she dove deeper into crypto, blockchain, and web3 and gained a deeper understanding of how technology can be translated into value for a new generation of consumers and restaurant brands alike.
Rupel founded Devour in 2021 as a tech-powered platform that connects restaurant brands with a digital-first Gen Z audience via tokenized promotions, player and community food perk rewards, food ordering widgets, and in-game ordering to elevate customer engagement for brands.
“[After the pandemic] I knew I was ready to go back out on my own during this next wave of tech. I had a lot of conversations with other companies in the space, and no one was pivoting their roadmap to take it on,” Rupel says. “Devour was born out of the desire to help the restaurant industry bridge what is next in technology. I was equipped from my experience in both industries to be the person who started a company to tackle it.”
The idea was to leverage innovative technology solutions to create dynamic, next-gen marketing campaigns that deliver results, transparency, and connection—all values important to the sometimes elusive Gen Z audience. Devour shows up where the digital generation lives, bridging the gap between gaming, entertainment, and restaurants.
“Our three-prong approach in our relationship with merchants is figuring out how we can bring value to them and empower them to open up other omnichannel ordering that isn’t just a shuffling of market share,” Rupel adds. “Our go-to-market strategy is unique because we are bringing in groups of digital communities and users through strategic partnerships, not going out and battling one by one for consumers.”
By playing in three heavily male-dominated spaces—restaurants, gaming, and technology—Rupel has gotten used to being the only woman in the room. She’s cognizant of the many challenges women face in STEM and business. According to her, less than 3 percent of female founders receive venture capital-backed funding.
“We’ve developed an extensive and powerful platform, but funding as a female founder is not easy. This has been a barrier to learn, work around, and adjust to, especially in designing our strategy and trajectory,” Rupel says. “[As a woman] I learned I have to show up in spades.”
According to the National Science Foundation, 35 percent of women were employed in STEM occupations in 2021. While there is still work to do to uplift women in STEM, Rupel is proud of the efforts made by larger corporations to accelerate young leaders and create an equitable workforce.
“Mentors like myself have had the opportunity to be there and open doors for the younger generation, despite the ‘old boys network.’ But we’re also seeing men in the industry who are wanting to help lift women as well, and that’s huge,” Rupel adds. “It’s really up to us to tell the younger generation they can do it.”
Rupel is especially proud of her executive team, where five out of six are women. She says this wasn’t intentional. She just had “badass and available” women who were passionate about Devour and ready to stretch up into an executive role where they felt comfortable and valued, a rarity in the tech, restaurant, and gaming industries.
“We have a very young engineering team and they look at us as female leaders, and you can see the excitement in their eyes as they watch us lead the way,” Rupel shares. “It’s so inspirational to me to have an impact on people so early on in their career. I couldn’t ask for much more.”
