Willingness to work hard and technology. Your friends is willing to open restaurant, I bet she/he is willing to work hard. Without knowing what is his/her strength in tech, very difficult to give suggestion.
However, I am willing to give your a case I know. A friend of mine who is a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry field started a business of providing food/nutrition analysis for small businesses. He started with 100K loan 10 years ago. He worked extremely hard, and of course, with good personal skills, develped his company to about 20 people. He sold his company last year with almost 7M. Most his employees are chinese Ph.D. in Bio- or Chem. field, who are not easy to find a good job in the industry (including me, I worked 2 years in the company, which I am very grateful.). It is a very stressfull and demanding job because he has to target small businesses. In the field, the rate of failure is very high for American-run company. However, there are a lot of business, indeed, as far as I know. The key is the cost control. If your friend has the courage to run a high-tech company with restaurent style, likely she/he would success.
Now, you tell me, is this worth 200 bucks?:).
