Beth Hussey

Restaurateur, tech founder and entrepreneur Beth Hussey tapped her decades of restaurant industry experience to not only become a successful restaurant owner but to also launch two thriving problem-solving apps.

Hussey grew up as the youngest of seven in the unincorporated community of Union Lake and attended high school in Phoenix, Arizona. She worked in her family’s steakhouse where her love of training staff was sparked. Interestingly, she said that all but one sibling still works in the restaurant industry.

“I worked my way up with sweat equity to create cool restaurant concepts - opening over 20 restaurants before finally opening my own restaurant,” she said.

After decades spent working for others and helping create prosperous restaurant concepts like Ferndale’s One-Eyed Betty’s and Pop’s for Italian, Hussey and her business partner and chef, Emmele Herrold, opened the popular seafood restaurant Hazel’s in downtown Birmingham in 2019.

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, they temporarily closed the restaurant, leaving Hussey time to turn her expertise and passion for training restaurant staff into the development of an innovative hospitality app called Shifty.

According to Hussey, recent industry data shows that the average restaurant worker stays on the job for less than two months – this dismal reality motivated her to share via her app what she has learned to help restaurant leaders spend less time training yet have better trained employees who stay at their jobs longer. It is now used at nearly 1,000 locations across the country.

Using her knowledge acquired creating Shifty, the entrepreneur identified and solved another problem that came to light when her mother moved from Phoenix back to Michigan into an independent senior living facility to be closer to her children: “We moved our mom into American House, which she loves, but it became clear that there was a problem communicating to the residents and their families all the activities happening (or not happening), including any changes to the schedule or the menu.”

In response, she and her team launched the simple-to-use community app called Senior Simon last year with Southfield-based American House Senior Living Communities. Despite research indicating seniors would have difficulty adapting to using even a simple communications platform, Hussey said the pilot test was successful, and it is now in use throughout all American House properties.

“It was such an easy problem to solve and improves the day-to-day experience of residents.”

Considering her path to success, Hussey advises aspiring entrepreneurs: “Take action. Everyone has great ideas but it’s rare to take action. Just thinking up a good idea won’t get you anywhere – you need to take the first step and do something about it.”

Currently, Hussey and her wife of nearly 30 years, Jennette Breault, live in Bloomfield Hills and are planning a significant home construction project. In what precious spare time she has, Hussey plans to return to playing golf this summer. She also serves on the Birmingham Shopping District Board as well as the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center’s Board of Directors.

“The bulk of my career I’ve worked for others, working hard, making a modest income while making others money. In this next chapter of my life, I’m achieving success and wealth on my own,” she said, adding, “Michigan is a very cool place to live and build a business. Detroit’s ecosystem is welcoming to founders, investors, innovators and entrepreneurs. I was lucky investors took an early risk with me based on my experience.”

She continued, “I love to work. It’s a lot of fun to succeed. Right now, I am excited and really enjoying this fast-moving train of success and dedicating most of my time to Shifty. Hazel’s is a well-oiled machine with an amazing staff and management team, many of whom have been with me since the beginning…For the future, I hope to be considered a thought leader in this space. I’m shooting for the stars.”

Story: Tracy Donohue

Photo: Laurie Tennent