Bilt-SamBakhshandehpour-00809.jpg?quality=80&w=970″ alt=”” width=”970″ height=”647″ data-caption=’Bilt founder Ankur Jain with Sam Bakhshandehpour, the company’s president of merchants. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Courtesy of Bilt</span>’>
For 15 years, Sam Bakhshandehpour ran restaurants. As global CEO of José Andrés Group, he took the chef’s cooking well beyond its dining rooms: to Formula 1 in Las Vegas, Capital One’s airport lounges, Simon malls and hotels from Nashville to Miami. He also licensed the Andrés name into media and consumer products.
Now he works for a company that began with rent. After two years as an adviser, Bakhshandehpour joined Bilt full-time this year as president of merchants. He oversees its partnerships across dining, travel, hotels and fitness, steering what members spend toward the restaurants and businesses near where they live. Founder Ankur Jain built Bilt by giving members points on their biggest monthly bill. It now has more than 7 million active members, and it raised $250 million at a $10.75 billion valuation in July 2025. Next year, Bilt opens its own café and event space at its Meatpacking District headquarters, designed by Rockwell Group.
Bakhshandehpour, a 2026 Nightlife & Dining Power List honoree, talked to Observer about the family dinners that shaped him, what he learned beside José Andrés and why a company built on rent cares where you eat.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
You’ve said your earliest memories are long family dinners. What were those tables like, and what from them do you try to recreate in restaurants now?
It’s pretty simple, to be honest: My parents and I would always sit at the dinner table and eat a home-cooked meal. It was a chance to reset, with a sense of safety and belonging. Nobody rushed. We were present with each other.
That’s what I want restaurants to offer today: that same feeling of belonging. A place to put the phone down, connect over a meal and be present. A truly analog experience.
You spent your career running restaurants. What did you see from the operator’s side that convinced you a rewards and neighborhood commerce platform could do more for restaurants than another restaurant could?
I saw an opportunity to help the entire industry. After 15 years running hospitality businesses, I know the headwinds: tighter margins, more competition and changing guest expectations. Even the best restaurants have to pivot around a rainy Monday.
At Bilt, I work with our team to tackle those challenges beyond one restaurant platform: bring in net-new guests, drive higher spend, and use relevant offers and loyalty to keep them coming back. That’s what drew me to Bilt: the chance to help an entire industry really thrive in a way that hasn’t been done before.
What’s the hardest thing you learned working alongside José Andrés? What will you miss most?
I worked on one of the toughest challenges in this industry: balancing creative genius with a successful business strategy and model. The definition of success differs depending on your lens. The challenge is building a business that succeeds financially while protecting the heart and soul of the creative vision. Few people truly embody that the way José does.
I’ll miss the creative energy and imagination, being around people who constantly push what’s possible with food and bring a fresh perspective to the table.
Several people who worked for you now run major groups, including Tyler Roberts at Mina Group and John Kolaski at Mother Wolf. What do you look for when you hire, and what’s the one thing you made sure each of them learned?
Without a doubt, my focus is always on character, positivity and relentless work ethic. Do the right thing, see opportunity and never be outworked.
Tyler and John deserve all the credit for their success. What I hope they carried forward is that you can’t control every opportunity, but you can control your preparation, your effort and how you treat people.
Why does a company built on rent care where its members eat dinner? When did restaurants become central to Bilt rather than a perk?
Rent was our starting point because it’s the biggest expense for most people, and historically, you got nothing back from it. But we’ve always believed the opportunity was much bigger than rent itself. It’s about creating more value from where you live. And when you think about what makes a neighborhood a neighborhood, it’s the restaurants, coffee shops and local businesses you go back to again and again.
So dining was never only about giving members another place to earn points. It’s about connecting people with the businesses around them, while helping those businesses attract new customers and build lasting relationships. That’s really the bigger vision for Bilt: a membership that creates value for both sides of the neighborhood economy. Rent gave us the foundation to build that, but what happens beyond your front door is just as important.
Picture an independent restaurant owner who’s never heard of Bilt. What changes for them in the first month of joining, and what’s the best story you’ve heard from one who has?
Once live, they can reach residents in their neighborhoods who haven’t discovered them yet. Bilt helps bring in new guests and uses relevant offers and loyalty to keep them coming back.
One dining partner of ours on the Lower East Side of New York City saw a really meaningful lift from people who had just moved into the neighborhood. After the first month, the data showed Bilt members had a double-digit higher check average than non-Bilt members. That’s the impact: new neighbors walking in, spending more and becoming regulars.
See all of Observer’s 2026 Nightlife & Dining Power List honorees.