Why [me]: David's Story

Los Angeles-born and world-raised, David Haile, MarginEdge’s director of customer onboarding, has assembled a toolbox filled with career-building experiences making him the successful asset to MarginEdge he is today. 

David spent the early years of his childhood in Los Angeles and thinks of L.A. fondly, going frequently to visit his family that still lives and thrives there. When David was 12, his world turned upside down (in a good way), as he moved to Ethiopia. David lived there for four years, during such a pivotal part of his development, and learned so much about his culture and also himself. While at the time extremely confusing for a 12-year-old whose world revolved around his routines and friends, today David says this was an experience he wouldn’t replace and tries to go back to Ethiopia at least once a year. 

After his tour across the world, David decided to attend the University of Texas at Dallas. He majored in finance and minored in economics but through it all, David waited tables. “Dallas is an interesting city with a booming hospitality industry,” he says. The restaurant he worked at was a gorgeous, all-the-frills steakhouse. He adored it, referring to this time as some of the best years of his life. 

When you think of Dallas, almost immediately you think of Dallas sports, which is a correct first thought because of all the sports players galavanting around the city. This galavanting also meant that they frequented his restaurant, The Keg Steakhouse. David’s most favorite guests were none other than some of the Dallas Mavericks. 

After graduating, David headed to New York City and started an internship at the Barclay for investment banking only to realize he hated it. David kept craving the hustle and bustle of the restaurant business as well as its raw authenticity. He finished the internship and took a job at a restaurant company, this time working in sales, knowing it was where he belonged. 

His career moved quickly (both for him personally and in his actual jobs), changing and growing consistently but he still felt devoted to both the hospitality industry and sales. David had a knack for moving fast and helping companies do this as well. For over a decade he opened, launched, sold and moved on. 

One stand out from his career was helping open the iconic sushi burrito restaurant, Buredo. Buredo broke the internet in 2015, specifically around the Washington D.C. metro area which was exactly their plan. When they brought him on, they wanted his expertise to take them to places they couldn’t imagine, and fix things they didn’t even know were problems. David was great at this, helping them open five locations in two years. 

After his journey with Buredo, and the start of that large, life-changing, global event that started in 2020 (cough cough), David found himself in a position for change. He was contacted by a recruiter for an open position at a restaurant software company called MarginEdge. He was brought on as a regional sales manager and ended up building the highest-performing sales team in the company at the time. He looks back fondly at this position and adores the relationships he built with his team members (Team Mamba). 

David was quickly known for his strong leadership skills and no BS management style. After a year and some change in this role, he was brought over to the onboarding team as the director of customer onboarding. 

Today, his primary job is to define what success looks like during the first 60 days of our clients’ onboarding journey. He helped develop [me]’s customer personas as well as defined value points for newly onboarded customers. The transition from sales to onboarding was not a walk in the park for David though, as it took practice and patience to learn all the ins and outs of the department. 

David is extremely excited about the future of MarginEdge regarding our software development department. He sees a world where restaurant clients will be able to utilize predictive ordering based on ordering trends, and how our product will use AI as well. 

When David has a break from leading the onboarding team to success, he continues to teach himself many new things, from Spanish to piano. He is an avid basketball lover, whether he’s playing it or screaming at people playing it on his television. Ball is life, so to speak. Finally, when he is feeling indulgent, you can find him galavanting up and down 14th St NW at all the delicious restaurants and hip bars, but most specifically Bresca. 

David is a powerhouse at MarginEdge and we are so thrilled to have him on the [me] team! When we asked David for a word of advice to our readers and new [me]ople, he simply said, “Let Mark Prysler write your raps”.