Why We Invested in CNSRV
Walk into any commercial kitchen during morning prep, and you’ll likely find a line cook anxiously staring at a steel sink, frozen fish or beef submerged under running cold water. In kitchens across the U.S., defrosting food remains a frustrating, inefficient, and costly daily necessity. Whether it’s chefs arriving early to begin the thawing process or managers coping with hours-long water waste, the defrosting issue is a hidden operational and water use issue. Restaurants waste staggering volumes of water, pay dearly for additional labor hours, and risk food quality and safety violations through inconsistent thawing practices.
Enter CNSRV, a defrosting innovation company solving an unglamorous but massive problem in the food and hospitality industry: how to thaw frozen food faster, safer, and more sustainably. Their flagship device transforms any standard commercial sink into a high-efficiency thawing station. By using proprietary agitation and temperature control, CNSRV dramatically reduces thawing time while using a fraction of the water compared to conventional methods. Crucially, it’s a portable, plug-and-play solution designed with working kitchens in mind, no plumbing changes, no installations, no wasted time. Dylan, CNSRV CEO, and the whole CNSRV team, thanks for letting us join you in the kitchen. Here’s why we did it.
A Massive Problem
Commercial kitchens run on tight margins. Every dollar saved counts, and every minute reclaimed from prep is invaluable. Yet the defrosting process, despite its impact on food safety, labor, utilities, and inventory management, has remained untouched by meaningful innovation. CNSRV is targeting a perfect intersection: operational inefficiency, sustainability imperatives, and food safety compliance. Most existing equipment in this category is either prohibitively expensive, too large for typical kitchens, or not built with defrosting in mind. And while health regulations exist, enforcement and practices vary widely. CNSRV’s device is NSF-certified and built with safety and usability at its core, addressing a critical gap in the kitchen operations toolkit. Importantly, the opportunity goes far beyond restaurants. The use case for fast, safe defrosting extends into grocery stores, hotels, hospitals, long-term care facilities, universities, and more, any setting where frozen food needs to be ready quickly, efficiently, and safely.
There are other products that claim to assist with thawing, but few deliver what CNSRV does. High-end blast chillers and thawing cabinets are expensive, bulky, and unsuitable for most kitchens. On the other end, cheap workarounds lack temperature control and can’t meet food safety standards. CNSRV occupies the wide-open middle: small-footprint, effective, food-safe, and affordable.
Beautiful Product Design
The CNSRV device is compact, portable, and integrates seamlessly into existing kitchen workflows. It uses carefully engineered temperature and water movement to cut thawing time by more than half, reduce water use by over 95%, and preserve food quality. It requires no new plumbing or build-outs and sits unobtrusively in the existing sink infrastructure of most kitchens. The real beauty of the product lies in its simplicity. Where once it took all day to thaw, it now takes less than two hours. Customers, ranging from high-end restaurants to grocery chains, are already seeing results in water conservation, improved food integrity, and operational efficiency. They're developing a smaller version of their device to serve businesses with limited budgets or space, as well as consumable accessories like food-safe filters that open the door to recurring revenue.
Deep Curiosity Leads to Exceptional Results
Dylan Wolff (CEO) is a product developer by training. He built the first prototype himself and tested it door-to-door with local restaurants. Over the past few years, he’s developed a strong understanding of the user journey, the buyer dynamic, and the constraints of commercial kitchens.
He’s joined by a small but capable team including Brett Abrams (Head of Sales) with 14 years of commercial experience, Alexandra Wynn (Head of Public Policy & Community Engagement) liaises on municipality driven opportunities, and Tim Nugent (Head of R&D) in-charge of product development. It’s clear they’ve stayed close to the customer, and as they scale, we expect them to maintain that orientation.
An Insane GTM Engine
Selling hardware is hard, but selling hardware into the hyperfast-paced, high-stress, demanding sector that is the restaurant and foodservice industry is next-level. CNSRV’s go-to-market approach is founder-led, hyper-local, and rooted in trust. They’ve gone door-to-door, partnered with regional distributors, and aligned with water utility rebate programs that help offset upfront costs for budget-conscious restaurant operators. They understand the relationship between end users (line cooks, kitchen managers) and corporate buyers (procurement and operations teams). They’ve grown a network of pilot programs and early advocates that includes names in grocery, foodservice, and hospitality. They’ve built the beginnings of a durable moat in the form of customer trust that will serve them well.
CNSRV sits at a fascinating crossroads of commercial kitchen innovation and sustainability tech. Their core product solves a daily operational challenge while delivering meaningful savings in labor, water, and energy. That’s compelling to end users, and it’s equally compelling to strategic buyers. As the industry becomes more aware of water use and operational efficiency, CNSRV is well-positioned to become the defrosting standard. Companies like Electrolux, Kohler, Moen/Fortune Brands, Hobart, Roca, and Dover Corporation are actively seeking hardware platforms that combine food safety, sustainability, and workflow improvement. CNSRV fits squarely in that ambition. As adoption grows and the company establishes a sizable installed base, CNSRV sits nicely as a compelling target. This is an enormous opportunity, hidden in the workflows of the mammoth food service industry that would be impossible to underwrite from a desk. Dylan and team - welcome to the Burnt Island.
