About Us

Our Story

It began with a problem

In 2014, Jay Villafana stepped into his new role as bar manager at one of San Francisco’s busiest restaurants. A perfectionist behind the bar, he took pride in every pour, every garnish, every guest. But the moment he entered the back office, the systems fell apart. Inventory was tracked by hand. Invoices got lost. Financials lived in spreadsheets and crossed fingers.

Jay knew it wasn’t sustainable — not for him, not for his team, and not for the craft. So he turned to his childhood friend, Sam Zats, a former consultant and engineer who’d grown up in his family’s restaurants. Sam built a better spreadsheet. Then a better system. Then he, Jay, and Sam’s brother Max started building something bigger: technology that actually understands how hospitality works.

Our Approach

Built in partnership with our customers

They didn’t build Craftable in a vacuum. They built it in collaboration with some of the most exacting culinary minds in the world — operators like José Andrés and his team — whose standards for excellence are non-negotiable.

Every feature was developed in response to a real need — not to check a box, but to solve a problem with the same precision and pride that great hospitality demands. That’s why the platform is as robust as it is: it wasn’t designed for the average use case. It was shaped by teams who run world-class kitchens and won’t settle for “good enough.”

They studied over 300 bar management spreadsheets, embedded in kitchens and back offices, and listened closely to the daily friction points that traditional software ignored.

Where we are today

Simplifying the Complex, Amplifying the Craft

Twelve years later, we’re proud to support more than 80,000 hospitality professionals — helping manage over 4 million invoices each year and over $5 billion in purchasing.

We never set out to become a platform. We set out to solve a problem — and in doing so, discovered that thousands of others were facing the same challenges.

From back-office chaos to smooth, connected systems, Craftable now supports every part of the operation — food and beverage, supplies, labor, and finance — with tools built to be as intuitive as they are powerful. Tools that teams trust, from the prep station to the boardroom.

And as the industry evolves, so will we — alongside the chefs, operators, and finance teams who continue to push the craft forward.

Because no matter how far we grow, our mission stays the same:
To remove the complexity, so hospitality teams can focus on what they do best — creating memorable moments that bring guests back again and again.