FohBoh — Social network for restaurateurs & staff

Get people from the same industry into a room together, and they’ll invariably spend the whole time talking shop; get them into a social network together, and the whole industry could benefit from the discussion. That’s a rough approximation of the idea behind FohBoh, a new vertical social network dedicated to those involved in the global restaurant industry. California-based FohBoh (a play on the insider terms “front of house”—FOH—and “back of house,” or BOH) is designed to enable connection, communication and commerce among employees, owners, operators, vendors, suppliers and service providers of the restaurant and hospitality industries worldwide. Personal profiles, blogs, forums, groups, photos and videos are among the social networking tools available to members of the site, which just launched in November. Beginning in January, it will kick off a rewards program that gives members the opportunity to earn points for community participation, redeemable for gifts and shadow stock in FohBoh. Membership on the site is currently free, but in the future FohBoh plans to offer value-added, subscription services such as a job bank and restaurant marketplace. It also plans to host sponsored live events in regions around the globe and travel excursions for networking and education. Advertising opportunities are coming soon too. General-purpose professional networking site LinkedIn currently boasts more than 17 million users, but there are 40 million workers or so involved in the global restaurant industry alone, FohBoh says. Time to unleash the vertical contenders—in hospitality and beyond! Spotted by: Mark McKellier