Armada launches hospitality platform with competition

Armada has launched a professional platform for restaurant workers and operators, alongside a nationwide competition for hospitality professionals and teams.

Founded by Starr Douglas, the platform aims to close information gaps between job seekers and restaurant employers. Armada enters the market after five years operating under the FrontHouz name, a period that gave the business workforce insight and operating experience in the sector.

Douglas said the platform is designed to give both sides of the hiring process a clearer view of one another before deciding to work together.

"There's so much information that gets lost between a worker and a restaurant," said Starr Douglas, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Armada. "A resume can tell you where someone has worked, but not what it's like to work alongside them. A job posting can tell a worker what a restaurant is looking for, but not what it's really like to be part of that team. We wanted to give both sides a better picture before they choose to work together."

Workers can use the platform to explore restaurants, present their career history and build a professional profile that moves with them between roles. Restaurants can showcase their workplace, identify talent and maintain relationships with people for immediate and future hiring needs.

The business is targeting an industry where hiring often relies on short-form CVs, informal referrals and limited visibility into day-to-day working conditions. Douglas, who has worked in hospitality for more than a decade, said that experience shaped the company's focus on transparency for both workers and operators.

Board backing

Chris Harter, a Board Member at Armada and former President of Levy Restaurants and Patina Restaurant Group, is among those involved with the company. His experience as an operator has helped shape Armada's approach to how restaurants assess candidates and stay in touch with potential hires over time.

"Operators are constantly trying to answer two questions: Who are the people we can trust to represent our restaurant, and where do we find them when we need them?" said Chris Harter, Board Member at Armada. "Armada gives restaurants a way to get to know hospitality professionals before they need to hire them, while building relationships with talent they can come back to again and again."

The company's name reflects its view of hospitality as a connected industry in which individual workers, teams and operators move through the market together. That idea also underpins an events programme called All Hands by Armada, intended to bring together staff from front-of-house, back-of-house and management roles.

The first All Hands gathering brought together more than 500 hospitality professionals from more than 250 restaurants. The event series will run alongside Armada's competition, which is set to recognise workers and teams across categories including Best Server, Best Bartender and Best Crew, with categories varying by market.

Atlanta start

Atlanta is the company's first launch market. In its first month there, more than 1,000 hospitality professionals from more than 200 restaurants joined the platform, giving it an early footprint across local restaurant teams.

Armada has also outlined a wider regional rollout. Markets in its initial expansion plans include Savannah, Charleston, Nashville, Orlando and Jacksonville, as it seeks to build a broader network among restaurant workers and employers across multiple cities.

The launch comes as restaurants continue to face persistent recruitment and retention challenges, particularly in roles where interpersonal skills, team fit and workplace culture can be hard to judge through conventional application processes. Armada's model is based on the idea that workers want more insight into what a venue is like before joining, while operators want a fuller understanding of who a candidate is beyond a CV.

Its approach also reflects a broader shift in labour platforms towards reputation-based profiles and ongoing professional networks rather than one-off job listings. In hospitality, where workers often move between venues and rely on word of mouth, that model could appeal to both independent restaurants and larger operators seeking a steadier view of available talent.

The inaugural All Hands gathering drew representatives from management, front-of-house and back-of-house teams, underlining Armada's effort to position the platform across the full restaurant workforce rather than within one part of the labour market alone.