Fractional AI Leadership · Hospitality

Most AI consultants have never
worked a Saturday night.
I have.

Electric Eel embeds as your fractional AI leader — building real systems, training your team, and tying every tool back to the numbers that matter. Built by an operator who runs AI inside a live restaurant every single day.

Book a 30-Min AI Opportunity Call →

Live in Verf's Grill & Tavern — and growing.

The Problem

Your group knows it needs AI.
Nobody inside owns it.

Most hospitality groups trying to adopt AI end up in the same place: a stack of tools nobody uses, a team that doesn't have bandwidth to figure it out, and a ceiling on what's actually possible because no one inside the business is steering it.

That's not a technology problem. It's a leadership problem. The technology is ready. What's missing is an operator who understands both the floor and the systems — and whose job it is to make the two work together.

01
Paralysis

They do nothing, fall further behind, and watch a competitor figure it out first.

02
Tool-hoarding

They buy five AI tools that don't talk to each other. Nobody uses them. The owner is $2K/month lighter for no return.

03
The side-project trap

A tech-savvy manager tries to figure it out on the side. No authority. No time. Nothing sticks.

What Electric Eel Does

You don't need another
software vendor.
You need an AI leader.

Electric Eel embeds as your fractional AI leader — the person who owns the strategy, builds the systems, trains the team, and makes sure the technology actually moves the numbers.

Not a vendor pitching software. Not a consultant writing a report and leaving. An operator at your leadership table for a defined number of hours each month, with one job: make AI work inside your business.

01 — Diagnose
AI Opportunity Assessment

Walk the business. Read the P&L. Find the 5–10 places where AI will actually move a number — and the 20 places where it won't, so you don't waste money chasing the wrong tools.

02 — Architect
AI Stack Design

Design the full system — what to buy, what to build, what to ignore. Integrations across your POS, reservations, marketing, and operations platforms. A coherent stack, not a pile of subscriptions.

03 — Build
System Implementation

Actually deploy the tools. Build the automations. Write the workflows. This is where most AI initiatives die — they stay on a slide deck. At Electric Eel, we ship systems that run in the business.

04 — Enable
Team Training & Adoption

Train GMs and staff to use the systems with confidence. Write the SOPs. Run the sessions. Technology nobody adopts is technology that doesn't pay back — adoption is a deliverable, not a bonus.

05 — Iterate
Ongoing AI Leadership

Monthly ownership reviews. What's working, what isn't, what's next. Every system tied back to a metric. The fractional engagement that keeps your AI function moving forward — not stalling after launch.

AI built inside
the business.
See How It Works →
Case Study

Proof, not promises.
Built inside a live restaurant.

Every system Electric Eel offers was first built, tested, and refined inside Verf's Grill & Tavern — a real restaurant, running real shifts, with a real team. Not a sandbox. Not a pilot. A live business that had to perform while we built.

Live Implementation
Verf's Grill & Tavern
Verfurth Hospitality Group · Restaurant & Tavern

When I arrived as GM in March 2025, Verf's had no events program, no structured staff training, no operating rhythm beyond the shifts themselves. The restaurant had potential. It just wasn't a destination yet.

Over the following year, I built the AI systems alongside the restaurant itself — simultaneously turning around the business and building the playbook that would become Electric Eel. Every system here was built under real conditions, on real shifts, with a real team.

Read the Full Case Study →
3+
Signature revenue events built and executed in the first four months — from zero. Jameson Dinner, Rollertown Beer Dinner, Tiki Week.
3x
Staff training programs rebuilt from the ground up — host, server, and bartender — with structured modules, quizzes, and answer keys.
Day 1
The first AI-assisted event was designed and sold on day one as GM. Not a pilot. Not a proof of concept. A sold-out dinner.
Who This Is For

The right fit matters.
Here's how to know.

Electric Eel is built for you if —
  • → You run 2–5 hospitality locations — restaurants, spas, hotels, or a combination — and no one inside owns AI.
  • → You've thought about AI but don't know where to start, who to trust, or how to make it stick beyond a trial period.
  • → You want a long-term operator partner — not a vendor pitch or a one-time audit that sits in a folder.
  • → You care about the numbers. You want to see AI tied back to labor cost, revenue, guest experience, and efficiency — not just novelty.
  • → You're ready to move, not just explore. The best engagements start with ownership that's committed, not curious.
This isn't the right fit if —
  • — You're looking for a one-time software recommendation or a tool review. That's not what we do.
  • — You want someone to deploy a tool and disappear. Every Electric Eel engagement includes ongoing leadership and accountability.
  • — Ownership isn't bought in. AI implementations fail when leadership treats it as an IT project instead of a business initiative.
  • — You're a single-location operation looking for a $500 automation setup. Our engagements are built for groups with real complexity.
Nico Ponce, Paris
Nico Ponce Founder & AI Ambassador
About

The operator behind
the system.

I didn't come to AI from a tech background. I came from the floor. I've been a GM at three properties inside Verfurth Hospitality Group — Lambeau's, Shoal Creek, and Verf's — and I built every system Electric Eel offers inside a live restaurant, on real shifts, while the business was running.

I taught myself prompt engineering through Coursera and DeepLearning.ai, not because I wanted to become a consultant, but because I needed leverage. One GM, one restaurant, a list of problems longer than any single person could solve manually. AI gave me leverage. Then I realized it could give the same leverage to every operator in the industry.

Electric Eel is that realization turned into a business. Fractional AI leadership, built by someone who actually runs it every day.

AI Ambassador — Verf's Grill & Tavern (first role of its kind at Verfurth Hospitality Group)
Founder & CEO — Electric Eel Consulting
GM — Lambeau's, Shoal Creek Tavern, Verf's Grill & Tavern
Studying — Coursera, DeepLearning.ai, prompt engineering, AI systems architecture
Book a Call

30 minutes.
One concrete idea you can use
whether or not we work together.

The AI Opportunity Call is a focused conversation about your group — your locations, your pain points, your current stack. You'll leave with at least one specific AI application you can implement immediately.

Book Your AI Opportunity Call →

No pitch deck. No upsell. Just a useful conversation with an operator who's in it.