ThumbsOFF! was created by Christian Valvo, a long-time, serial restaurateur. Having “fly- on-a-wall” access to the behavior of servers for many years and at many restaurants, Christian realized that servers are the most likely source of germs being passed to customers. On a family trip to a BBQ joint, a server brought him a plate of food and he watched the server’s thumb slide out of his coleslaw as he place the food in front of him. Feeling that it was time for him to do something about it, ThumbsOFF! was born.