May 17, 2017

Meet Daniel Kebort of KEEP Catering

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Kebort.

Daniel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was in going to school in Austin, I worked as a delivery driver for a local cafe that did a considerable amount of in-office catering for corporate clients. By being exposed to this I realized that there was a niche market for company to specifically focus on this type of catering exclusively. Corporate clients have very specific needs and although there are options for feeding large groups it appeared to me that there was no one focusing on servicing this specific segment of the market directly. After graduating, I took a job as a software engineer for a company in Houston. This afforded me the opportunity to travel globally and the more places I went the more I realized that this same need exist for the same global companies I encountered in Austin in nearly every major market in the world. After a few years, I decided to give it a try. With my wife’s support, I stepped away from my job as a software engineer and opened KEEP Catering in Houston in Feb. 2016. Our first year was a bit of trial and error. Although we knew what market we wanted to serve, we only had a rough idea of exactly how we could customize our business model to speak directly to our potential client’s needs. We got lucky early as a couple of global firms liked what we were trying to do and enthusiastically came along for the ride. We tried all types of setups and menu options with our early clients and with their guidance and feedback we were able to create a unique in-office catering concept that covers most, if not all, of the day to day needs our clients encounter. This two way communication afforded us the opportunity to acquire an in depth understanding of our clients’ needs and I believe we now have the most comprehensive in-office catering solution in Houston.

Has it been a smooth road?
As any small business owner will tell you there is no smooth road. For me there were learning curves in several aspects of opening the business. Because our objective is to penetrate a segment of the market that we feel is being under served, we have to do a lot of things differently than other F&B businesses. Learning how to tweak the industry standard operating procedures in order for us to be able to better serve our clients was a huge hurdle for two reasons. First, we just had to learn what our process was and second, once we figured out the best way for us, there were challenges in finding the right people that were willing to come in, understand and execute our processes. Building a strong team that buys into what a company wants to do when the company is still finding its way is one of, if not the hardest challenge an entrepreneur is going to face. Especially in the first year.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
KEEP Catering is an in-office catering solution for corporate clients. Whether its meetings, training’s, cocktail receptions or any of the other day to day needs our clients may have, we have a menu and a service that speak directly to them. Our menu is designed to simplify the catering process for our clients. Our approach to our concept is unique in that we look at things from the perspective of our clients. So many other businesses, especially catering companies, approach things from their perspective, or what they perceive the needs of the client to be. We listen to our clients, learn what they want, and then go back to our kitchen and adjust what we do in order to meet that expectation. This enables us to be more flexible with our service and our clients love flexibility. Although the quality of the food is important, and we have great food, the service around it is more important.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Houston is the best city to start any business! Just the large number of resources available and the pro-business attitude of our city government make it a great incubator for entrepreneurs. For my business, specifically it is has been an ideal location to start. With all of the densely-populated business districts in town from downtown to uptown to the energy corridor, Houston offers us access to a huge potential client list that can’t be found in most places.

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