Creating a suite of restaurant apps that share one backend and one control center, launched as a company you own called Benchio. Here is the honest plan to build it, what each piece really costs, and how your stake in Benchio can pay for the work.
The wallet pass is the wedge. Once a customer taps an offer into Apple or Google Wallet, you own a direct line to them; no printing, no app to download, no third party renting you your own list. That same backend then carries the next app, and the next.
Each app is useful on its own, but the real value is that they share one login, one bill, and one control center. Menu boards, staff training, the franchisee document library, the store evaluations you already run; today those are four or five separate subscriptions from four or five vendors. Benchio folds them into one platform you own instead of rent.
Rascal House is tenant number one and the proving ground. Once it runs your own stores, the exact same platform becomes a product Benchio sells to other restaurants, each brand with its own name and look, all on one shared backend.
The hardest, most expensive part of any multi-app platform is the plumbing underneath it: accounts, logins, roles, billing, messaging. Proxy already built all of that for its own client portal, and Benchio starts from a copy of it. That is the single biggest reason the build costs what it costs.
Two honest realities to name up front, because they shape the timeline and the resale story:
For each, two numbers matter: Devin's hours to build a working first version (he directs and tests; the AI writes the code), and what the same thing costs to build custom on the open market. Market figures come from 2025-2026 pricing research.
Scan a QR, register, and drop an offer straight into Apple or Google Wallet. Show it at the counter with a student ID; staff scan it on an iPad and tap "Redeem," and the offer disappears so it can't be reused. You control the offers, the artwork, and the expirations.
Add your locations, add screens (left, middle, lobby), then build slides, playlists, and timing. It plays on a cheap Fire TV Stick or Roku plugged into any TV.
Build video, text, and quiz courses; employees move through a gamified, lively flow. You see where each person and each location can improve, with trends and averages, and completion earns rewards.
A document and file library (manuals, paperwork, forms) with tracking that shows who actually opened what, plus staff apparel ordering that sends print-to-order to a print vendor.
This is Rascal Reviews, the store inspection app you already have: 609 checkpoints, Pass / Fail / N/A, automatic scoring and star ratings, critical-item safeguards, photo capture, and a branded shareable report.
A single place a franchisee logs in and finds everything: the training video library by station, the manuals and paperwork, the apparel forms and ordering. It ties the training and document modules together behind one franchisee-facing door, with its own role and permissions.
Two honest comparisons. The same first-version platform would run roughly $60k to $120k from a small AI-assisted shop, or about $285,000 as a full-custom agency build of all six areas. Here it comes down to Devin's estimated hours at $50/hr, about $17,000 for the whole first version.
$50/hr is Proxy's at-cost number, roughly what Proxy would pay one of its own designers to do the work, with no agency margin on top.
| Module (first version) | Devin's hours | Cost @ $50/hr | Market full-custom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform foundation | 45–65 | ~$2,750 | shared plumbing |
| Franchisee portal + role | 15–25 | ~$1,000 | franchise features |
| Wallet Pass Coupons | 55–85 | ~$3,500 | ~$38k |
| Digital Menu Boards | 60–90 | ~$3,750 | ~$75k |
| Video Training | 40–60 | ~$2,500 | ~$55k |
| Shared Asset Repository | 25–40 | ~$1,600 | ~$50k |
| Evaluations (port) | 30–45 | ~$1,900 | ~$65k |
| First-version platform | ~270–410 | ~$17,000 | ~$285k |
The more equity in Benchio you grant, the less you pay Devin per hour. Give him half and you're equal partners and the build is free; keep all of Benchio and pay the full rate.
| Devin's stake in Benchio | Build rate | First-version cost |
|---|---|---|
| 50% · equal partners | $0/hr · free | $0 |
| 40–49% | $20/hr | ~$6,800 |
| 30–39% | $30/hr | ~$10,200 |
| 20–29% | $38/hr | ~$12,920 |
| 10–19% | $44/hr | ~$14,960 |
| 0–9% | $50/hr | ~$17,000 |
The step just below 50% is deliberate: it makes a clean equal partnership the obvious deal, and every point you keep past that is priced so the cash cost rises steadily back to full rate.
Equity for work is normal and it aligns everyone. The risk lives entirely in the fine print, so a handful of things get decided before anything is signed.
The fastest way to make Benchio feel real is to stand up the shared backend, light up the app that's already most of the way built, then move to the one you most want.
Copy the platform into Benchio, check what's live on Rascalcloud today and plan the switchover, stand up the module shell and the franchisee role, and move Rascal Reviews in as the first live module. Dogfood on your own stores against clear success targets.
Your favorite and the flagship. First thing to confirm: how a coupon is redeemed at the counter, since that decides whether we touch your register.
The web manager and first player first. Start the Fire TV and Roku store approvals early, because those run on the app stores' calendar, not ours.
The gamified training, the reference library, and the single franchisee home that ties training and documents together.
The document library and read tracking, then the apparel ordering storefront.
The security hardening, the tenant sign-up and billing flow, and the Benchio marketing site and support model that let it sell to other restaurants. This is the real cost of "resellable."
The order is adjustable. If momentum matters more than proof, we lead with the Wallet Pass on a lighter foundation and fold Evaluations in right after.
We can begin with the Wallet Pass because it's the one you want most, or with the foundation and the already-built Evaluations module for the fastest proof that the platform is real. Either way, the next step is choosing the ownership split so we can scope Phase 0.