PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — With hectic schedules and families that are constantly on the go, it is getting harder and harder for people to wait for anything.

Now, a company – with its roots here in Pittsburgh – has developed a system that uses your smartphone to keep you in the loop when it comes to how long you’ll wait for a table at dinner.

“It’s the most popular restaurants that’s very hard for people to wait there; we just make it easier and more efficient,” says Robb Myer, the president and CEO of NoWait.

Birchmere Ventures thinks it’s a great idea. They have just invested a lot of money in NoWait’s future.

“We just raised an investment of $2 million from Birchmere Ventures right here in Pittsburgh to really take our idea, expand it much more rapidly nationally,” said Myer.

NoWait started at AlphaLab on the South Side, a short term business accelerator, and got a thumbs up from the director.

“Has managed products for successfully technology companies, but he also built a very strong team; someone from the restaurant industry, also a couple of people that had very strong technical and design backgrounds,” said Jim Jen, the director of AlphaLab. “So, we had a lot of confidence in their ability to execute.

Watch Jim Jen & Robb Myer on Pittsburgh Today Live!

“Like Jim said, hundreds and hundreds of companies every year, they have a lot of information into the market as a whole, so to get that external validation for a young company is very important,” added Myer.

NoWait is an iPad-based system used by restaurants that do not take reservations.

They pay a monthly subscription fee for the system that sends a text message to a waiting patrons’ smartphone to show where you are in line for your table. Unlike flashing pagers with limited range, you can go anywhere and know when you need to be back.

“It makes their job as a restaurant easier, but it makes the waiting experience for the customer, you and I, a lot better,” Myer said.

“Chances are, you will be using NoWait system,” he added. “We have the Mad Mex chain; we have all the Texas Roadhouses in Pittsburgh, our newest client is the Bettis Grille on the North Side.”

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