Wish Waiting for a Table Was Less Painful? There's an App for That. NoWait efficiently manages waits for tables, reducing stress levels for customers and restaurant owners alike.

When Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung needed a more efficient way to manage the hourlong waits for tables at its U.S. locations, it turned to mobile tool NoWait. "Our locations seat as many as 2,000 guests a day," says Aaron Yang, partner and operations manager for Din Tai Fung USA. "NoWait has become essential to help us, and we've gotten very positive feedback from both hosts and guests. We're definitely seeing a decrease in wait time."

The dumpling specialist, which has locations in 10 countries, is now using NoWait in all six of its U.S. restaurants.

Robb Myer conceived NoWait after one too many holdups at his favorite eateries. Formerly a director at an employee-benefits and consumer-health company, Myer teamed up in 2010 with developers James Belt and Richard Colvin and marketer Luke Panza to launch their NoWait host app for the iPad, which moves traditional restaurant wait lists from paper to tablet.