For operators with new stores on the calendar · Multi-unit restaurant & retail · 5–100 units
Find the 3–5 tech issues most likely to delay your next opening. Before they happen.
I've spent 18+ years on the tech side of new store openings — Shake Shack, Macy's, Under Armour, Carter's — 100+ openings without a technology delay. I pressure-test your opening process and hand you the issues most likely to push your date, with a fix for each, while there's still time to fix them. No vendor pays me.
Every week of delay you avoid keeps $30,000+ in sales. Per store.
30 minutes, no pitch. You get the 3–5 tech issues I'd be most concerned about, in writing, the next business day. If everything looks solid, I'll tell you that too.
Every door opens on time.
- 100+ openingszero technology delays
- 20 → 125 storesone brand's expansion, run from the IT side
- 18+ yearsinside Shake Shack, Macy's, Under Armour, Carter's
- 2,200 storescut over for a major retailer, on the vendor side
What a week of delay costs
$30,000 a week. Per store.
A store doing $1.5M a year brings in about $30,000 a week. When the opening slips a week, that $30,000 is gone — and rent, payroll and launch marketing keep running anyway. The new GM is on the phone with the POS vendor at 11pm. Somebody works the weekend. The next opening on the calendar inherits the mess.
- $30,000one store, one week late
- $4,300one store, one day late
- $300,000ten stores, one week late each
Finding the issues costs less than one of the weeks they'd cost you. That's the whole business case.
Why openings slip on tech
Nobody lied. Nobody owned the handoff.
Your GC says the build is done. Your POS vendor says the install is done. Your network vendor says the circuit is up. Each of them is right about their own part.
Then it's opening day, and the terminals can't reach the processor. Or the first day's batch lands in the wrong bank account. Or the kitchen printer drops tickets at the first rush. Each vendor finished their scope. The problem lived in the handoff between them — and the handoffs were nobody's job.
"They told me it's done" is not proof. Proof is someone pulling the cable, ringing a sale, and watching it settle.
That's the difference between an opening that holds and one that slips a week. It's also the whole method: nine tech checks, proof on each, done by someone no vendor is paying.
The nine checks
Nine tech checks decide whether a store opens on the day.
I call them the nine lines. Nearly every opening delay I've seen traced back to one of them. "They told me it's done" counts as in progress. Proof counts as done.
- Backup circuitThe second internet line comes into the building on its own path, not next to the first.
- Merchant IDsEvery terminal is tied to the right bank account, checked by someone other than the installer.
- Offline modeUnplug the internet, ring a sale, plug it back in, and the sale still settles.
- WirelessThe Wi-Fi survey was done after the fixtures and shelving went in, not on an empty box.
- IntegrationsOnline ordering, loyalty, delivery, inventory: each one has a passed test with a name and a date on it.
- PrintersKitchen and receipt printers route right when ten tickets hit at once.
- RollbackOne person can call it off, and there's a time by which they have to.
- Day-one fundsSomeone in finance confirms the first day's sales landed in your bank.
- HypercareThe first weeks after opening have written exit rules and an end date.
Want to walk them yourself first? The free 30-Day Cutover Checklist has all nine, with the 40 things that have to be true before a cutover. Take the checklist — no email needed.
How it works
Three steps. The first one's free.
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The free pressure test
Free · 30 minutes
I call it the 9-Line Walk. Thirty minutes, mostly questions, against your next date. Then, the next business day, you get the 3–5 tech issues I'd be most concerned about — in writing, with what to check this week.
No pitch on the call. If everything looks solid, I'll tell you that too. It's for operators with an opening on the calendar in the next six months.
What it costs you: 30 minutes.
Book the free pressure test -
The KeyDate Buildout
$12,500 · two weeks · fixed scope
Your technology opening process, built in two weeks. I run the nine lines against every store in your wave — up to ten locations, five vendor interviews, a site walk, 45 minutes with each of your three seats — and you keep:
- The risk list. Every tech issue that can push your date, with proof, a named owner and a written fix.
- Your nine-line opening checklist, built for your stack and your vendors — the one your team runs on every opening after this.
- The Vendor Question Pack, marked up against your findings.
- The Cutover Day Runbook, with your times in it.
- The 30-Day Date Check — we re-score the list a month later.
Fewer than five material risks found, you don't pay the second half. Full scope and what's beyond it
What it's worth: one store, one week of delay avoided, is $30,000. The Buildout is $12,500.
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Keep it running
From $2,500/mo · only if the findings say so
Governance — $2,500/mo, to opening dayYour team runs the opening. I'm the second set of eyes: I own the list, chase owners, update dates and flag what moved. Less than one dark day a month.
Fractional — $8,000/mo, three-month minimumI run the opening — the plan, the vendors, the go/no-go call, the date — 15–20 hours a week, so you can open five or more stores a year without adding IT headcount. About two dark days a month. A full-time hire is $140k+ with benefits.
We decide which, if either, at the Buildout readout. Not before.
The math, step by step
Every step costs less than the delay it prevents.
- Free pressure test$0. You get the 3–5 issues in writing. Worst case, a short list of things to check this week.
- The Buildout — $12,500Pays for itself the first time it keeps one store from slipping one week ($30,000). Across a ten-store wave, one week late is $300,000.
- Governance — $2,500/moLess than one dark day ($4,300) a month, to opening day.
- Fractional — $8,000/moAbout two dark days a month — against a $140k+ full-time hire you'd need for two quarters, not forever.
If you've had an opening slip, you already know the number. This is for the operator who doesn't want the next one.
For
Operators like you: owners, COOs and VPs of Ops at multi-unit restaurant and retail brands, 5–100 units, with new stores on the calendar — and at least one opening that slipped last year.
Not for
Single-site operators. Brands past 100 units with a rollout PMO. Anyone whose vendors have never surprised them on opening day.
Who you're working with
Deon Coleman
I've spent 18+ years on the tech side of new store openings — inside Shake Shack, Macy's, Under Armour and Carter's, and on the vendor side of a 2,200-store cutover for a major retailer.
Every opening I saw slip, slipped at a handoff — where one vendor's "done" met the next vendor's start. The GC finished the build. The POS vendor finished the install. The network vendor turned up the circuit. Nobody owned the handoffs.
So I stopped taking status and started checking the work myself. Nine tech checks, proof on each. The openings started holding. KeyDate is that, on the operator's side of the table. No vendor pays me.
Certified ScrumMaster. Based in metro Atlanta, working nationally. I don't sell hardware, licenses or installation labor — no commissions, no side deals. My only incentive is your stores opening on the day.
- Led insideShake Shack, Macy's, Under Armour, Carter's | OshKosh
- Delivered atSoFi Stadium, Gillette Stadium, UBS Arena, State Farm Arena, Globe Life Field, Hartsfield-Jackson ATL, Brown University
- AlsoStore cutovers across 2,200 locations for a major retailer
- The systems I've cut overPOS (Aptos, VeriFone, NCR, Epicor), payments and PCI programs, network and cloud voice, device fleets at scale (Intune, Meraki, AirWatch), printers, peripherals, kitchen and back-office hardware
Fair questions
Straight answers.
We already have a project manager.
Good — most teams do. Your PM is inside the project, which is exactly why they can't see all of it. I'm the outside pressure test, not a replacement. I hand your PM a list that lets them escalate what they already suspect. If you want me as a second set of eyes on that list to opening day, that's Governance.
"Buildout" — like the construction build-out?
No. Your GC builds the store. I build the technology opening process that gets it open on the day: the risk list, the nine-line checklist for your stack, the vendor questions and the cutover-day runbook. Your GC's build-out ends at turnover. Mine ends when the first sale settles in your bank.
Is $12,500 a lot for two weeks?
Compared to what it prevents, no. One store that opens one week late costs about $30,000 in sales — and rent, payroll and launch marketing run the whole time. The Buildout finds the issues that cause that week, with a fix for each, while there's still time to fix them. If it finds fewer than five material risks, you don't pay the second half.
What if everything looks solid on the pressure test?
Then I'll say so, in writing, and you'll have a short list of what to keep an eye on. No charge. If a date starts moving on a later opening, you know where I am.
Will you work with our existing vendors?
Yes. The handoffs between your vendors are the job. I take no commissions from anyone, so the only side of the table I sit on is yours.
Will this turn into an upsell?
The Buildout is fixed scope, two weeks, and it ends with a readout. If the findings justify Governance or Fractional, I'll say so once. If they don't, I'll say that too. The process is yours either way.
How does pricing work?
Fixed for the Buildout, scoped for everything else, retainers billed monthly in advance. Buildout terms: 50% on signature, 50% on delivery, ACH preferred. Scope changes the price; the rate doesn't move. The full scope, and what costs extra, is published on the home page. And if the Buildout doesn't find at least five material risks with owners and fixes attached, you don't pay the second half.
Every door opens on time.
If your next six months include an opening, the pressure test takes 30 minutes and costs nothing. Worst case, you get a short list of things to check. Best case, you skip a $30,000 week.
Or just reply to my message on LinkedIn, or email deon@keydateadvisory.com.