Atul has been in the hospitality business – primarily with restaurants – for over a decade. Most recently, as the first employee and Chief Business Officer of Kitchen United, he was responsible for raising over $100 million (from investors including Google Ventures, Fidelity, Simon Property Group, RBI, and others) and striking a comprehensive relationship with Kroger to install ghost kitchens in Kroger grocery stores. He also led all restaurant brand relationships, sharing the path for restaurants to leverage the ghost kitchen arena and working with Chik-Fil-A, Portillo’s, Sweetgreen, RBI, and others.
Prior, Atul was Director of Global Business Development for McDonald’s Digital, a business unit formed to help spur technological innovation across the restaurant. In this capacity, Atul forged partnerships across the technology ecosystem – ranging from payment platforms to voice activated ordering to food delivery initiatives – to help McDonald’s build the ‘restaurant of the future’. Atul ended up being the head of Global Delivery Partnerships, forging partnerships across Australia, Singapore, Canada, and the United States at a time when food delivery was just getting off the ground globally.
Atul currently acts as a Chief Business Officer to multiple technology companies focused on the restaurant sector. In his capacity as Managing Director of Sood Advisory he guides companies ranging from drone delivery to gamification to license-plate based payments to lead their Go To Market Approach, manage PR, and raise funds.
Atul spent much of his life internationally and has lived in 8 countries including Japan, the UK, and Saudi Arabia. Atul graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
