Our Story
Twenty-Five Years on the Floor
Viking Restaurant Consultants is a restaurant consulting company, and the mission has not changed since day one: help restaurants succeed. The tools came later, built from the everyday problems that twenty-five years in the field turned up.
William Huffstetler
Founder & CEO
With over 25 years of hands-on restaurant management experience and a degree in Hotel Restaurant Management from Georgia Southern University, William knows the daily grind of running a restaurant — because he’s lived it.
But William’s story didn’t stop at the kitchen line. When he saw how much time operators wasted on reporting, guesswork, and outdated tools, he taught himself to code — entirely through YouTube tutorials. No bootcamp. No second degree. Just thousands of hours of video learning.
That self-taught journey didn’t just produce one product — it produced two. And it revealed a bigger truth: video is the most powerful learning medium on the planet, but it’s broken. So William set out to fix both problems: how restaurants operate and how people learn.
The Bigger Picture
Why There Are Two Products
Teaching himself to build the first one turned up a second problem, and it had nothing to do with restaurants: the way we learn from video is fundamentally inefficient. Thousands of hours of tutorials to find the ninety seconds that mattered.
Viking Restaurant Consultants is a restaurant consulting company, and that has not changed. But the same habit produced both tools — hit a problem often enough, then build the thing that should have existed. One came out of running restaurants. The other came out of learning how to build for them.
Our Platforms
Two Platforms. One Mission: Smarter Through AI.
Odin’s Almanac
AI Restaurant Operations
The AI-powered restaurant operations platform that prevents problems instead of reporting on them. Six integrated modules — from zero-touch P&Ls to predictive ordering — that save operators an average of $3,500 per month and give back 5+ hours every week.
ClipSifter
AI Video Answer Engine
The AI-powered video answer engine that eliminates learning friction. Ask any question in plain English and ClipSifter reads transcripts from the best YouTube tutorials, finds the exact timestamped moments that answer it, and compiles them into a seamless, watchable answer. Stop scrubbing. Start learning.
“I taught myself everything — Python, JavaScript, machine learning, cloud architecture — by watching YouTube videos. Thousands of hours of tutorials. But I wasted so much time scrubbing through 45-minute videos just to find the 90 seconds I actually needed.”
“That experience built Odin’s Almanac. And the frustration of that experience built ClipSifter. One platform automates restaurant operations. The other automates how you learn from video. Both exist because I refused to accept that ‘this is just how it works.’”
— William Huffstetler
What Drives Us
Our Core Values
The twelve pillars the company is built on.
Strength
Powerful support when it is needed most. Robust tools, dependable uptime, and analysis that holds up in a bad week.
Teamwork
We succeed together as partners. Shared dashboards and tools a whole team can work in, not just the owner.
Professionalism
Excellence in every interaction. A clean interface, clear communication, and deliverables we put our name on.
Quality
Premium solutions, no compromises. Rigorous testing and attention to the details nobody else checks.
Consistency
Reliable results every time. Accurate calculations and predictable behavior, day after day.
Perseverance
We do not give up on problems. Persistent support and continuous improvement until the thing actually works.
Satisfaction
Your happiness is the priority. Design built around real needs, responsive support, and feedback that changes the product.
Safety
Protecting what matters. Food safety tools, data security, and compliance built in rather than bolted on.
Experience
Real knowledge, not theory. Built by people who have worked the shift, not read about it.
Integrity
Honest and transparent, always. Clear pricing and truthful insights, including when the news is bad.
Knowledge
Wisdom you can act on. Data-driven recommendations grounded in genuine industry expertise.
Pride
Your restaurant is worth being proud of. A clean kitchen, a product worth your name on it, and a room you are glad to show anyone.
Beyond Software
Consulting Services
Beyond our platforms, we offer hands-on restaurant consulting backed by decades of operational expertise.
Strategic Growth
Market analysis, expansion planning, revenue optimization strategies, and brand positioning to take your restaurant to the next level.
Culinary Innovation
Menu development, food cost optimization, seasonal strategy, and kitchen workflow improvements that boost both quality and margins.
Operational Excellence
Staff training, process optimization, compliance auditing, and technology implementation for peak efficiency.
Ready to Work Together?
Whether you need restaurant software, video learning tools, or hands-on consulting — we're building the future of how people work and learn.