July 29, 2025 • 33 mins
Guest: Gab Lopez, MD at 24social (MVG Media)
Host: Chris Fletcher
Series: Tech on Toast Season Sponsored by Deliverect
This Week’s Slice:
What if building a pub website took less time than pouring a pint?
Chris sits down with Gab Lopez, MD of 24social, to talk about making websites work for hospitality – not the other way around. From their AI-powered “MyPlace” product for venue managers to scalable enterprise tools for group operators, 24social is transforming how pubs, restaurants and bars show up online – mobile-first, lightning-fast, and without the headache.
You’ll hear about:
🍽️ How the “AI menu” turns a phone snap into a full food menu online
📱 Why venue managers can build a live website from their mobile in minutes
🎯 Why websites still matter more than ever – even in a world dominated by social media
⚙️ How 24social’s platform grows with operators – from one venue to 100
🎉 Real operator stories (like Punching Palooka’s cocktail bar journey)
🔗 Seamless integrations with booking systems, events, and even live sport
🧠 The UX and accessibility trends redefining digital presence for hospitality
🎤 And yes, Gab’s side gig as a school compère and 10K-running dad!
Whether you’re a GM drowning in PDFs or a head office team managing 50 sites – this episode is for you.
👀 Learn more
🤝 Find Gab Lopez on LinkedIn
Brought to you by Deliverect – powering order management across thousands of hospitality businesses to reduce errors, streamline service, and deliver better guest experiences.
Subscribe to Tech on Toast and discover the stories shaping the future of hospitality – one shift at a time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Techinto's podcast, the show that connects
hospitality with technology, oneslice at a time.
I'm your host, Chris Fletcher, and each week we're joined by
the sharpest minds in the industry, from operators and
founders to tech pioneers, to uncover the tools, trends, and
stories shaping the future of hostility.
This season is brought to you byDeliberate, the trusted order
management platform helping thousands of hostility
businesses streamline service, reduce errors, and serve up
(00:23):
better guest experiences. Whether you're scaling dark
kitchens or managing multiple brands, Deliberate helps you
connect your channels and power performance.
All right, let's get to it coming up on this weeks Tech on
Toast podcast. 24 Social is our web content solution for the
hospitality industry. Go and build themselves a
website in what, 3 minutes? I mean, literally, you're drag
and dropping your images in, you're putting your details in
(00:45):
your opening hours and you're away, right on a very basic
level. My Place product this is for the
venue manager who hasn't got time to manage their website
because they're more busy, whichthey should be managing their
staff. There's no trial and error, you
just enter your details and it'sbuilt.
So do. You wanna spade?
Keep digging. No, no, no.
That's fine. If you don't have a presence
online in every digital channel,there's generally going to be an
(01:08):
an opportunity missed. We're very much hot on that
trend of can we cater to every single kind of individual and
what does that look like? That's why people end up in a
mess when they build their own website because they want to do
it their way and have it. But actually you can still do
that through a framework that someone's built for you, which
is what you guys have done the. AI menu you literally take a
photo off your phone and you click upload and it will upload
(01:29):
that as a menu onto your website.
And you can do all this on your mobile.
All of it again, it's just because no size fits all.
You know, it's a case of that journey and making sure that
they everyone's covered in some way or another.
Welcome to the next episode of the Tech and Toast podcast, and
today I'm delighted to be joined.
Can I say old friend now I think?
You can. I think we're we're all chums.
Let's say old friend MD of 24 Social MVG Media.
It's Gab Lopez. Hello Gab, how are you?
(01:49):
I'm very well. Thank you for having me.
Let's get the name in bit out ofthe way first, because Gab Lopez
doesn't sound like you're from Cardiff.
Well, no, but if funny thing youmention is because of my accent,
everyone thinks, well you're notfrom Spain, you have no any
Spanish connections. So I used to be called Gavin
Smith when I was at university, which wasn't the best name in my
opinion. Sorry, Gavin Smith's out there.
Gavin Smith is actually the MD of Pizza Pilgrims General.
(02:09):
It is just. Of course it is.
That's the random name you picked.
That's naturally what I do. I, I, I unintentionally upset
people. No, I'm only joking.
I'm no, but Gavin was just a joke because Gab is short for
Gabriel. And so people whenever they hear
Gab, they they think I've said Gab.
So that's where Gavin and Smith is just a very common English
name, so hence. Do you want a spade?
Keep digging. No.
No, no, that's fine. No Gab.
(02:31):
I prefer, you know, a Spanish heritage.
My parents came to the UK and mysister and I were born here and
I've lived here ever since. Really so?
Well, welcome, we're at. We're in Voorbos today with some
lovely lighting and lots of big cameras.
Feel like we're on TVI? Know, I mean I've never seen so
much bright lights apart from the dentist chair, but this is
great. This is much more pleasurable.
I think it is. So look, before we get into it
and we rattle on, tell us a little bit about 24 Social
(02:52):
because it's becoming a frequentconversation change in mind when
I'm out meeting particularly pubpartners at the moment.
Tell us a little bit about what you guys do and where you're at.
Absolutely. So 24 Social is our web content
solution for the hospitality industry, specifically made to
tailor the needs of any kind of hospitality LED company.
So from pubs, bars, your sleepy village pubs, your city central
(03:17):
pubs and we're looking forward to expanding that outside of the
the kind of pubs and bars. We've worked with nightclubs
before and obviously the hotel industry and cafes is where we
want to kind of naturally move to.
But essentially we are a web content solution.
We have created our product fromthe ground up, specifically
tailoring to hospitality sectorsand we've actually expanded to
(03:39):
two products. So we've got our enterprise
product, which is our multiple brands management content
solution system. So it just makes everyone's life
easier to share content across multiple brands tailored to
their specific designs and needs.
And then the other one, which we've just launched, which we're
super excited about is our Myplace product.
This is for the venue manager who hasn't got time to manage
(04:01):
their website because they're more busy, which they should be
managing their staff and managing their clients at the,
at the front of the bar. We've, we've, we've basically
wanted to eliminate any barriersfrom having to manage a website
on a, on a laptop. Everyone's got on their mobiles,
everyone uses their mobile TV websites. 80% of the market
suggests that. So let's give the power to the
(04:22):
venue manager, to the pub owner,to the landlord to basically
control the website on their phone.
So we've removed the dashboard with my place.
There is no dashboard. It's all front end and anyone
can use it. And I'll go into a bit more
detail and you know, as to why we did that, but that's pretty
much the premise of our two, no?I mean, I love it and I've used
it right? And I, well, I've seen a demo,
not used it. I haven't got my own restaurant
yet. One day, there's one thing that
(04:42):
day happens. We.
Were just talking about adding more stuff to my business.
People just get a restaurant. That's it.
And the hardest job will be to choose the name of that pub or
restaurant because, well. There's definitely something on
Toast, wouldn't it? But like, I, I, I obviously went
through a demo with you guys when you, when you joined us and
we were, we were working with you.
And what I, what I really like about it.
If you've ever used a Wix or a square space or I'm trying to
think of these website builders,they are good, right?
(05:05):
And they are intuitive, but they're not like you guys.
And I think the difference for me is that as you just said,
then you're built for hostility operators.
And I physically could get any of my former GMs who I've worked
with in the past to go and buildthemselves a website in what, 3
minutes? I mean, literally you're drag
and dropping your images in, you're putting your your details
in your opening hours and you'reaway, right on a very basic
(05:26):
level. Absolutely, yeah, We're, we, we
like to call it you. You're not building, you're kind
of generating a website. Generating.
Yeah, you're basically putting your details, you're putting
your imagery, and then you choose your colour scheme and
the site's up. It's that simple, It's that
quick. You can then tailor your
experience and that's kind of phase two within it.
But the idea is if, for example,you're a pub that has a very
(05:46):
community LED, you know, type ofindividual who attends, you want
to kind of try to break the barrier of Facebook, which is
often what we find is that the dog and duck, for example, has a
Facebook page and posts all its data there.
But then you're kind of ring fencing your your customers,
Whereas actually a website is still a variable valuable asset
because it can actually help with conversions.
(06:09):
That's the key thing that we wanted to really kind of
establish and also support because Facebook is great for
the people who know how to use it and obviously of that
generation of that illness. Matter is the devil.
But yes, but this is where it's heading is that people like
Facebook is in some respect a certain segregated group now,
but actually we want to kind of allow that expansion with a
website, but not make it so complicated that it's so not
(06:31):
easy to use. So that's.
Because you go through a lot of local businesses, don't you, on
Facebook that exist on Facebook and probably born out the
pandemic when people are building groups everywhere, but
they haven't taken that next step or they've had a go at
taking that next step and it's been difficult.
Yeah, I mean, I, I went to AI, went to a venue near my local, a
village next door to where I live.
And then she said, oh, I was trying to use Rackspace to build
(06:52):
a website using their system because I bought my domain and
they offer a free solution. I just didn't, I just couldn't
get on with it. And I said, well, would you like
to try this? And and that stemmed that, that
relationship there alone just from because of just the trial
and error perspective. And we just want to eliminate
that. We want to just, there's no
trial and error. You just enter your details and
it's built. And was that the problem that
you went set out to to fix then I suppose what was the original
(07:14):
thing that went that sparked this kind of journey?
Well, I think historically because our our business has
worked with the hospitality sector for 20 odd years now and
we've worked with major operators, you know and you know
of different sizes. And the one thing that was
apparent is that no size fits all.
You have different types of groups within the operators.
(07:35):
So you have the brand kind of lead group, then you have the
tenants, then you have the independents.
And the one thing that was really apparent between all
three of them is that they just don't have the time.
They like, I think, I think, I think that's fair for every
pretty much every profession. Let's be fair.
You have to do stuff that you wish you didn't, but you have
to. Yeah.
And I think. And I think with hostility,
we're obsessed with the customer, or we should be.
(07:56):
Yeah, we're obsessed with the customer and our products,
whatever the product, whether it's a food or a drink,
whatever. And I think these things are a
distraction, although obviously now people understand that
actually it's a window to the world.
It helps them, yeah, yeah, business, et cetera, et cetera
and also makes them competitive because if you don't have that
angle, you're, you're also some next door does.
Well, this is it. It's, it's a case of if, if you
(08:16):
don't have a presence online in every digital channel, there's
generally going to be an, an opportunity missed.
I think that's the best way of saying it because you know, you
have your group of, you have a group of people who use Twitter,
who use Instagram, who use Facebook, who use websites.
And I was talking to a friend ofmine who, who, and he was like,
I'll only use Google. And I said, yeah, of course, but
Google is the starting point. You'll look at Google and then
(08:39):
you'll click on visit website. And that might be to look at
their menus, to look at their, anything that they're doing
locally, like any events. And that's kind of where it
starts because you'll start at one point, but hopefully you'll
navigate to a website because I think it's, it's such a, it's
almost like the, the establishment, isn't it, of any
kind of company is to have a, a,a website.
(08:59):
And I think venue managers and independents and when, when
they're competing with very, it's a, you know, very tough
market to compete with, they've got to try to stand out.
So that's why we wanted to go toevery kind of venue and and
cater to them for somewhere or another.
I, I, I like in a website sometimes like a shopping
centre, bear with me here, but so when I used to work in
college shows, we had lots of, Iused to have lots of shopping
(09:21):
centres. God, they hated me obviously.
So most of my sites were in shopping and they were all
always anchored by John Lewis. They used to call it anchored.
So John Lewis would be the, the main face of that shopping
centre. Then everyone else would then
sign up because John Lewis had gone in.
I actually think that the website anchors you to where
your brand sits or where your business sits and actually
allows people to come and bring more people into the mix.
And I think, and I know a lot ofpeople say, yeah, of course
(09:42):
website makes sense, Chris. But I think tailoring it to your
brand and be able to do that in a really quick and simple way
without having to hire a marketing department or someone
who, you know, often it's the guy on the floor or the guy
behind the bar or the girl who works wherever, who ends up
being the website builder because they've done it at uni
or whatever it might be. And this just takes away a lot
of that pain, doesn't it? And puts you back in a place
where it's a bit of control as well to get back in here, isn't
(10:02):
there? Absolutely.
I think with, I mean you've kindof touched on that from an
operator like with multiple brands.
And one thing that we've kind oflearned in the last few years
with our enterprise model is that there are templates that
everyone uses across the industry and how do you make
those templates more catered to your needs.
So that's what we've done with our enterprise.
We've kind of given the keys to the Kingdom really to the to the
(10:23):
marketing team so that we've gotpre pre designed templates, for
example, food and drink offers, you know, rhythm of the weeks.
These are event pages that are naturally needed upon your
website. Mother's Day, Father's Day, all
these kind of very high hitting event, you know, very specific
time of the year events, but they're all there cater to you.
And the idea then is that you just tweak them to your needs
(10:45):
and you publish them. Everyone's talking about
Christmas already, which is quite a scary statistic.
And depressing. And depressing because our
summer, it's the summer. Come on, let's just enjoy.
I think we had our two weeks. We had our two weeks, Chris.
I think I think we're good. Mr. Lopez, I would expect you to
be planning for more summer. I would love to, I, I wish I'd
put some sun, you know, sun cream on today, but
unfortunately, at last I did not.
But no, I think it's, it's apparent to us in our kind of
(11:07):
day-to-day of, of working with the hospitality sector is that
you have to have things tailoredto your needs within your brand
or your kind of image. But it's the time that that
takes. And that's how we've tried to
kind of limit that. And that not only goes for the
enterprise, but the my place solution.
So we have different types of venues using it that are sleepy
(11:28):
pubs or restaurants or bars. The best one is the cocktail bar
in we've got one in Saint Albanscalled Punching Paluka and they,
they love the dark theme. Well, who doesn't at a bar?
It's like it just, and you know,I have this argument with my
developers. It's like they hate like light
theme. They hate it.
And whenever I ask for requests and light theme, I said, oh, you
sold fashion nobody uses anymore.
So the day I landed a site that had uses light theme, I was
(11:51):
absolutely tearing into pieces with it.
It was fantastic. But it highlights the point is
that everyone's different. Everyone wants a slightly
different design. Everyone wants.
To and it's a rabbit hole, right?
I mean, I've, I did God knows why I got into this, but when I
started being not entrepreneur, I hate that word, but when I
started running my own businesses, I was obsessed with
websites like it was my own, it was my and it's like a rabbit
hole. You go onto it and you might
(12:13):
have a good eye, right? Or you understand what good
looks like, but actually doing it is I, I, I mean, that's,
there's a reason why there's professional people who do this,
because it is hard work and you need to be dedicated to it.
And I think I found that out theexpensive way.
I reckon I built 25 websites since I started my own business
really myself across Squarespace, web flow, all the
different versions. And actually the best website
(12:34):
I've done I paid someone to do. It's funny you mentioned that
because you know our team, we'vegot 2 UX experts, Pablo and Sam
and Pablo, you know, from he's been with the business for over
a decade I think now. And Sam, he's, he's kind of our,
our newbie. But they both will challenge
each other of like that doesn't look good.
And Sam is very, very hot on theaccessibility side of things
(12:54):
because that's something that sometimes is quite it needs to
be remembered but often prioritised at Phase 2.
So you'll build. Something and then like, oh, we
need to consider that. So we're very much hot on that
trend of can we cater to every single kind of individual and
what does that look like? And that goes from both the
enterprise and the kind of my place solution because, you
(13:16):
know, some people do need to have that support.
And actually then it just makes your website even more
approachable. More demographics can reach you.
And it's interesting because like the facilities are such a
great one. Sometimes you can have too many
facilities, but sometimes facilities are really good
because they promote. And I was talking to somebody
the other week and she was like,I will not go to a pub.
Doesn't have a dog walking section or like a dog friendly
(13:39):
section. And I'm like, so, so dogs are
important to you. I said yeah, yeah, yeah, they're
everything. And it's like, well, that's good
because facilities should cover dog walking.
And actually your SEO and your promotion of that website should
cater to that because you're going to get ramblers coming
through with their dogs. And this is.
I mean, this is it. We spend a lot of time in
Cornwall and that is our number one ask for us with our dog.
If we can't go with the dog, we just won't go.
Well, this is it. He's on holiday too, right?
(13:59):
This is it. It's actually his holiday.
Yours. Because you know you.
Go out. I mean, I think I feel like my
life is his to be fair. The life of a dog.
But no, it just it just highlights the point of the UX
is quite key and the data you put into the system is is quite
key to promote your products andand your style as well and
things like. That and talk us through so I I
I've been been through this a little I think I did I see my
(14:21):
place the one that I did with you yes so talk us through so
I've landed on is it self-serve or do I have to come and speak
to you first well. We, we want to essentially, if,
if you're really not tech savvy,which there are naturally some
of us are. And I to be fair, I think
everyone's you got a level and then it's almost like can you,
can you improve on that? And but some people don't have
the time as well. Yeah.
So we absolutely do cater to, ifyou're interested, we will
(14:45):
generate the website because it takes us 2 to 3 minutes.
It's not like a a long time, butyou can do it yourself.
You can go on our website, you can put in your, you can just
put an e-mail address. You can find your venue.
So we have a, a system which uses, uses basically Google to
grab your data, paste it in there.
And then you can then choose to,to then build your website upon
(15:07):
the dog and duck. So you know, that's, that's how
it starts. And then you just cherry pick
the styles, the look and feel, upload your photos.
And then you use the AI generating systems that we have
to generate your event data. You can generate your about U.S.
data if you wish to. And you can just put something
in like rustic pub and then it will generate a, a template that
looks like a template. It grabs your, it grabs your
(15:29):
opening times from Google. So again, you don't have to
input anything, but I'll save the best feature, which we're
really proud of is the AI menu. So you might be wondering what
that is. It's basically if you're at a
pub and you've got my life on AI, this is it, an AI menu.
Chris, what is on your menu today?
But you go to a pub, you've got a chalkboard and you've got all
your menu on your chalkboard. You can literally take a photo
(15:51):
off your phone and you click upload and it will upload that
as a menu onto your website. There is no need to interact.
It grabs the data and then you can upload photos if you wish to
because there is a demographic of people who like to see what
they're eating. And that actually generates
potentially another group of individuals looking at your
website. So but the AI generator, it's
just to save you time. If you if you like, if you've
(16:11):
got a bunch of starters, mains and desserts and you just want
to quickly upload it, that's theidea.
And if you've got like a Sunday special, I was.
Going to say seasonal stuff for.Seasonal stuff is a great one.
We know we can cater to multiplemenus.
We've got children's menus, senior menus, senior price menus
and things like that. It's all there, available at the
touch of a button. Now obviously you can do old
(16:31):
school. You can still upload your PDF
and that can be there. You can download that.
You can use the system to generate the content if you
wanted to. Just cherry pick which ones you
wanted. So it's not about
one-size-fits-all like it's sorry, it's not about one
journey, it's how you wish to use.
Yeah, the personalization of it is still, and I think that's
what people look for when that'swhy people end up in a mess when
they build their own website because they want to do it their
(16:52):
way and have it in. But actually you can still do
that through a framework that someone's built for you, which
is what you guys have done. And I'm guessing from a
franchise point of view in that way as well.
It's quite nice, right, to be able to say kind of we own the
key. I think you said the keys to the
Kingdom. So kind of like we've got
control of this. I'm thinking from a central
office. We work with some big pub
partners where we're trying to find them solutions.
In fact, one yesterday we were talking to about how they
(17:13):
control, they don't want to own it as in they don't want to get
stuck into it, but they want to have that access.
So for landlord leaves another one that's a lot, that's an easy
transfer, it's not something difficult to do and you guys
cover that. Exactly.
We we have different structures within our enterprise that we,
we call it the venue manager mode.
So the operators at the very toplevel, the head office, will
control certain data, but they might want to give the venue
(17:34):
manager of a set like. Images or.
Something exactly they might, they might want to just control
the food and drinks, they might want to just control the opening
times, things like that. So they don't touch every aspect
of it. But it's all controllable, so
you can choose which areas you'dlike them to access or not.
And then the same applies to thethe Myplace application.
If you don't need to use events because you're not showcasing
(17:54):
events, you can turn that off. We've introduced sporting
fixtures because a lot of the wet walks, they naturally
showcase sporting games. You know, with Premier League
coming up, it's perfect timing to start to kind of promote
what's coming up. So that's all integrated.
But again, it's if you don't have football fixtures or you
don't have food, you can take turn those off so you don't have
like wasted space on the website.
And the the reason we've done that is again, it's just because
(18:17):
no size fits all. You know, it's a case of that
journey and making sure that they're everyone's covered in
some way or another. And what's I suppose, have you
got like AI don't want stories, not right, the words?
Have you got like an example of someone who's taken kind of
worked with you and had a bit You mentioned the lady before.
It was kind of like I just can'tget this going.
Have you got any more examples of people who have taken you on
and kind of gone? Had a bit of a wow moment?
Yeah, I mean, we had so punchingPalooka is a great example that
(18:41):
he was struggling to upload events on his website.
He's a cocktail. What's a mixologist?
That's a mixologist. Mixologist.
Like a posh bartek. Exactly.
Well, I think we're undermining the mixologies there.
But no, I mean like a good cocktail is hard to find
sometimes. But I'll take it back.
But but he realized that for him, it's a case of uploading
(19:03):
events in a, in a timely manner to promote the Friday that's
upcoming to showcase the kind ofcocktails that they're working
on. And he was struggling with it on
his, on his previous system. So we basically just gave him
the access to the Myplace application that we built for
him. And he goes just try it just
just, and it's just, it's essentially a form, but it has
like 3 fields with AI integratedelements.
(19:25):
Upload Upload your picture on your mobile.
The pictures are optimised. So you know, the thing about
iPhones and and Android phones is that the pictures can be
huge, but we we have to optimizethem immediately.
Otherwise it impacts your your page rankings and your.
Speed and you can do all this onyour mobile.
All of it, Yeah. Yeah, you don't need a laptop.
The amount of like I, I went to a venue because I don't even
have a laptop anymore, so I can't do this.
(19:47):
That's just, what have you got Mobile.
Of course I've got a mobile. Like judging me for asking that
question. And it's like, well, you can do
it that way. And it was like, OK, that's
cool. But he, he basically said he's
busy, He just needs to build, make an event and make it live
straight away. And that's it.
And, and I think that's a success story within my place.
But the, the other thing with enterprise that we really try to
make real a big, a big noise about is like we're not the
(20:10):
experts. And I, I can't believe I'm going
to say this because the experts are the people in the industry,
such as the, the operators. Now obviously we've been working
in the hospitality sector for somany years and we know what they
need to a degree. But they might be coming up with
some radical ideas that they want to promote new things.
And we're like, well, what do you need?
What do you need the system to do?
Whereas if you go to like a sitecall or a WordPress, you might
(20:32):
have to find some how to do that.
We will add that to our application for you if we feel
like it's the right path for theapplication.
The application's road map is designed by the people who use
it as well as ourselves. Because we'll come up with some
ideas too. But like, if, if they needed to
do something, we'll build it. A great example is we've done,
you know, like gamification is always a great example of how we
(20:53):
can introduce new features and things like that.
And also kind of like the integrated API journeys for
booking. Nobody wants to see a widget on
a page anymore. They want to see the branded
page. The user experience needs to be
defined that way and it needs tobe all mobile for you, like so
mobile first mobile, everything,but desktop is still got its
place, you know, because I thinka lot of people still make lots
(21:13):
of corporate bookings that way, things like that.
So we just tried to make that road map accessible to the
people we work with. And that's, that's feeds the,
the progress of it too. So that's kind of the, the big
thing about it. Sorry.
I was waiting for the trolley togo past.
Get that? If she had some cocktails on
there, maybe. No, no, maybe.
Maybe it's the posh bartender. Posh bartender that you?
Talked about. And what about and I suppose and
(21:35):
you mentioned integrations and iterations to the product.
Yeah. What does the future look like
for 24 Social? And so because obviously you can
go, this can be very broad and wide.
Well, it's interesting because we, we, we've gone to a lot of
conferences this year that talk about LO and no, that talk about
the demographic of people not drinking much.
We've, we've gone to the fact that there's a lot more venues
(21:57):
opening up as independents as well.
So a lot more kind of lease and tenanted is happening.
So we're trying to cater to the need of that, that demographic
of how do we, how do we incorporate new features to kind
of showcase new products such asthe lower nose and things like
that. And obviously that's all kind of
templated in terms of pages, butthere's always ways that we can
(22:17):
kind of expand on that. We've realised that there's a
lot more, there's a lot more integrations we need to
complete. So we're integrating with lots
of partners, but that list continuously grows.
A great example, yeah. You'll never end that as.
Well, never end. You know, we've been working on,
you know, shout out to Gig Pig. They're fantastic.
We worked with Gig Pig. Yeah.
And you know, I, I love what they're doing with the whole
idea of music is such a key feature in pubs and bars and
(22:41):
there's natural integrations there that we're kind of it's,
you know, it's on our own map and things like that.
But for us it's as well, it's all about the hotel industry,
you know, the booking engines aswell.
We feel like there's a lot of areas in the booking engines
that can be naturally improved with what we've learnt from the
journeys that you're seeing. I think it's quite clunky, isn't
it? Or has been quite clunky in the
past. No, no, I'm not offending.
Anything. No, no, no.
I think I. Think but that I think it's more
(23:02):
the journey, right? But but everything is changing
to a degree because you don't just have to book now on a
website. You could book, integrate it
through Google, you can book in certain other ways, but I think
what's quite apparent is the less clicks the better.
And AI needs to be able to book for you.
I think that's a test that we'vekind of integrated is can you
ask an AI tool to make a bookingfor you?
So can it navigate your website and generate a booking from
(23:24):
accessing your website? Because sometimes that's a
pitfall because the AI will get so far and then not be able to
complete the booking. So we're looking at things like
that to ensure that every aspectof a support system or a an
integration can be met. Like people like Adsort, I don't
know if you know those guys who are voice, voice AI where you
can book through the voice AI. And I was had them on the other
week and it was insane. Like the quality of the and the
(23:46):
response time really quick. It's really accurate.
Yeah. And it's just and you know,
through a website obviously makes it even smoother, right.
So you go, as you said, one click straight in and then
you're and then you're chatting to a human.
Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think obviously
like with, with chat bots and things like that, that was like
the old school way that we used to work with.
And that's kind of basically being eroded by the AI
integration. What we realized that it should
(24:09):
never stop because we have to integrate new features to our
application to to meet the demands of the public that what
they're expecting. You know, what is the industry
working on with AI tools that it's such a buzzword, but it,
it, it has to be because of the nature of the progress that it's
making. Yeah, it's fast.
It's fast. Again, it's the idea hopefully
is to make your life easier and,you know, save you time so you
(24:29):
can concentrate on on attending to people at the bar or you
know, or or your staff or whatever is needed really for
you know that that shouldn't be taking time up with your
website. No, totally agree.
And if people are listening and they're thinking this is quite
interesting, how do I get involved?
How do they get hold of you Gab?I know you're do you hang out on
LinkedIn at? All Oh yeah, I'm on LinkedIn.
You can you can reach out to me on my usual networks.
No, LinkedIn is a great one. And you know our website is 24
(24:52):
social dot IO. It's that simple.
A lot of data is there, you know, if you need to reach out
to us, you know, there's a number there and we'll happily
talk to you and talk to your needs.
And I think the key thing is, isto hopefully understand what it
is that you're looking for. What what and what barrier does
anyone have with something that they already have?
If you don't have a website, of course, that's great.
But if you have a website, what is it that's stopping you?
And I think that's always a question.
(25:13):
But I also like to ask like, what's your journey?
Because then you get the interesting story about like I
also was talking to you before we started about how many plates
do you actually spin, Chris? That is the question.
How many more plates will you bespinning by the end of this
problem? Right.
And I think that you're doing two things.
You're powering SME, right? Because if you look at the
Myplace product, you're actuallypart of their text stack.
(25:34):
Yeah. And you know, for an SME, you'd
say they've got a text stack. It's a bit, they're probably not
thinking like that, but actuallythe reality, they've got pause,
they've got workforce management, probably got some
kind of CRME tool and they need a website.
So you're powering that first part of the the journeys you
want to call it for SME, but then you've got that big role to
play for these guys that grow, but nothing grows with them
sometimes. So I think it's a massive
(25:55):
problem. I think not just in hostility
across a lot of industries whereyou'll build a website or you'll
build a portal to show off what you do at certain stage at stage
6 or 7 sites. That's right.
Then you end up at 50 and you haven't really, or you've
iterated as you've gone and you end up with this kind of
Frankenstein of of a website andyou just need to stop and
review, right? And I think people like you can
kind of sit there, take away thepain, listen to what they need
(26:17):
to get out of it and what the pain points are and go away and
fix it. And I think that's that's
something that I suppose a lot of people don't really get to
until they meet Someone Like You.
Well, this is, it's a, it's a very good point because you can
have multiple formats, multiple designs that might work, but
they might not work. And, and we've tried to ensure
that what we can provide to you is a much more centralised view
(26:42):
for controlling all your domainsand controlling all your
designs, all powered by one tool.
That's the key thing. So if you have multiple tools or
multiple designs, how can we kind of tell you that to make it
simplified and kind of streamlined.
But the one thing is you can't lose flair.
You have to, the brand has to bepassionate about what you want
to kind of showcase and application needs to be able to
(27:02):
deliver that. So we've worked with partners
before. That said, we want it to really
be a bit different. I said, OK, what is it you need?
And we need the design to be notlike a standard banner.
We need this to be that. So then our UX experts come in
and we go like, OK, well, we cando this, we can do that.
But it's that journey. It's the whole conversation
point. And then that's what kind of
what you get from us. It's that we don't just stop at
the, it's built. It's very much a relationship
(27:24):
that continues. And that's what good on boarding
is. It's, it's a case of making sure
that the support is there and then hopefully you're excited by
what you're building to then funnel the road map for US 100%.
So that's the key thing there. And I think for us, we we and
the reason we love wrong is I love tech on toast because I
built it. It was about working with the
people behind the tech and I think relationships are
everything and anyone who's listening for 24 social, the
(27:46):
people we've met from behind it are all just cool, right always
sound great. Oh no, no, but you won't like
this. But they, they always turn up
the smile on the face. There's it was a willingness to
help. And I think everyone we've
introduced you to, you've met all of a sudden, it moves very
quickly, which just shows that you're actually solving a
problem. That's it.
I think everyone's got a story to tell and everyone's got have
their journey. If you're an entrepreneur, if
(28:06):
you're a tenant, if you're an operator, you will have had
trials and tribulations over thelast five years to get to where
you are. And we're no different.
And I think that's the key thingis to make sure that what we've
built is going to make a life easier.
And then that way your time should be dedicated to the
passion that you have, which is the people that you're serving
or the services that you're providing.
The website should be a passion regardless, but that should be
(28:28):
dealt with within us and you as a relationship.
So that's kind of what we want to do really.
That's our mission statement. It really is to kind of be the
top company to support the hospitality industry within our
web presence, within our contentmanagement solutions that we
have and we're expanding those. We're trying to offer better
value. Sporting fixtures is a big one.
You know, there's, you know, there's new features within the
(28:49):
the front end that we're lookingat.
What else can we do? And we kind of would love to
know more from the customers themselves as to what they want.
And sometimes they don't know what they want until they have
it delivered. This is very true.
They're like, oh, you built that, but I'd like it to do
this. Well, that's.
Face. Yeah, but often it's very hard,
isn't it? Until you see in front of you is
that I'm a very visual person and that's when someone designs
them. I know, guys, I need to see it
(29:09):
before I can tell you 100% whether I think we're going in
the right direction. And what about you then?
Because obviously that's the product and what you do on the
day-to-day. What about a day off?
You told me some interesting stuff.
You said you were compared for the school.
So with a voice like mine, Chris, you.
They'll be judging you now. That's it.
No, my my wife started as a DJ and we've actually got a few DJs
(29:30):
in our in my circle. Like Nick, the founder of the
business was a DJ back in the day.
Right. OK.
Are we talking Ibiza or are we talking local boozer?
I think it might be Croydon based.
I don't know. I don't know.
I think I wonder if he's played Ibiza.
Actually, I don't know. No, but my history, so my
passions are. I've got a young daughter who we
just completed our first 10K runthis weekend and she's only ten.
(29:53):
Wow. So she's she's I'm trying.
I kind of really encourage her to kind of keep motivated, you
know, you know, girls in sport is a really big thing of mine to
to get her moving and and it keeps me fit because she pushes
me and it's embarrassing how farit literally pushes you or no.
Well, no, I mean some, I mean, without the fear of tripping
there there is. Sometimes she just like mocks me
a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(30:14):
And it's that little like everybody.
I've got an 18 year old boy. I'm sorry.
Yeah, I've spent. When they dis you it's harsh to
take so you have to just step up.
I played football in the garden with him for about 7 years when
he was 8. You know, from like 7 to 14
before he started Mini and all that and I used to bathroom like
I'd like. We used to literally score an
overhead kicks. I was living my dream and then
he got good. And then it was a humbling.
Experience. Yeah.
And then I was punished. So you've got how old?
(30:36):
10 years. Old.
She's 10 years old and yeah, she's really passionate about
sports, so we try to really kindof encourage that.
Other things like my colleagues and I, we love to play golf and,
you know, just get outdoors really.
And we love our kind of, we're all remote based, but we really
value the importance of meeting up.
(30:58):
And we, you know, we used to come here to Shoreditch way and
we just, you know, just go to different venues and just
experience them. We've got our favorite pubs in
here in the area and we just kind of ensure that we have a
good time together when we're when we're all when we're all
here. So that's kind of like my
passions really. And I love going back to Spain.
I love speaking Spanish when I can, you wouldn't tell with my
accent. I'm not even gonna.
(31:18):
Stop. I can't even put it on.
You're like. I'm literally I'm on dua.
What's it called? Not dua lipa dua.
Lipa, you're on Dua Lipa, right?I actually saw her a few weeks
ago, Wembley. But dua Lipa my my daughter's
challenged me to learn. Oh, good to learn Spanish by.
I think I've got till October tohave a good to have a good.
I speak French quite well. But do you?
Yeah, Let's not even go there. My colleague Pablo would love to
(31:39):
chat to you. Yeah, SO can speak.
I did that A level men at uni and stuff for them.
But but yeah, Spanish is my next.
I kind of tinker around with it,but I'm not, I'm not even now.
I know you speak Spanish, I'm not going to bother.
But that's my challenge for me, because when you get old, you
need to challenge. No, that's it.
That's it. Like like for me, it's a case of
I want to try to run a marathon.My knees aren't great.
So I'm just building up to it and just, I'm trying to, yeah,
(32:02):
just just just do more things with my daughter, you know,
because while they're young, youwant to enjoy those years
because as you say, Chris, as they get older, 100% mate, you
know, they, they get the SAS levels increase.
So I'm just not looking forward to that.
A different type of SAS to what this podcast is already about.
That's right, exactly. That is a different type of SAS.
It's. Already is.
Yeah, Yeah, that'll be a post one day.
Look, thanks, Gab. I appreciate it.
We appreciate working with you as well.
(32:22):
We really, we love you guys and what you do.
I think sometimes we're tech canbe very complicated and I think
24 social is very simple. I'm not trying to be rude.
No, no, no. That's that's kind of the motto
really, is to keep it. Yeah.
And I think that that resonates with the customers we talked to
so long. May that continue.
Thank you very much. Have a lovely day.
And likewise, hopefully everywhere you go, you'll be lit
up on the on the rest of you, I'm hoping.
(32:43):
People will stop me in the street now.
That's that's what I want. Yeah, that's all gonna happen
anyway. Thank you for coming to Tech on
Toast podcast. That was 24 social.
You can find them on the Tech onToast website, on the
marketplace, and you can find Gab floating around LinkedIn and
on the contact details. Give us some again.
You gave us. Before yeah, so it's 24 social
dot IO and it's Gab Lopez on LinkedIn.
Lovely. Thank you mate, have a great
day.
Welcome to Techinto's podcast, the show that connects
hospitality with technology, oneslice at a time.
I'm your host, Chris Fletcher, and each week we're joined by
the sharpest minds in the industry, from operators and
founders to tech pioneers, to uncover the tools, trends, and
stories shaping the future of hostility.
This season is brought to you byDeliberate, the trusted order
management platform helping thousands of hostility
businesses streamline service, reduce errors, and serve up
(00:23):
better guest experiences. Whether you're scaling dark
kitchens or managing multiple brands, Deliberate helps you
connect your channels and power performance.
All right, let's get to it coming up on this weeks Tech on
Toast podcast. 24 Social is our web content solution for the
hospitality industry. Go and build themselves a
website in what, 3 minutes? I mean, literally, you're drag
and dropping your images in, you're putting your details in
(00:45):
your opening hours and you're away, right on a very basic
level. My Place product this is for the
venue manager who hasn't got time to manage their website
because they're more busy, whichthey should be managing their
staff. There's no trial and error, you
just enter your details and it'sbuilt.
So do. You wanna spade?
Keep digging. No, no, no.
That's fine. If you don't have a presence
online in every digital channel,there's generally going to be an
(01:08):
an opportunity missed. We're very much hot on that
trend of can we cater to every single kind of individual and
what does that look like? That's why people end up in a
mess when they build their own website because they want to do
it their way and have it. But actually you can still do
that through a framework that someone's built for you, which
is what you guys have done the. AI menu you literally take a
photo off your phone and you click upload and it will upload
(01:29):
that as a menu onto your website.
And you can do all this on your mobile.
All of it again, it's just because no size fits all.
You know, it's a case of that journey and making sure that
they everyone's covered in some way or another.
Welcome to the next episode of the Tech and Toast podcast, and
today I'm delighted to be joined.
Can I say old friend now I think?
You can. I think we're we're all chums.
Let's say old friend MD of 24 Social MVG Media.
It's Gab Lopez. Hello Gab, how are you?
(01:49):
I'm very well. Thank you for having me.
Let's get the name in bit out ofthe way first, because Gab Lopez
doesn't sound like you're from Cardiff.
Well, no, but if funny thing youmention is because of my accent,
everyone thinks, well you're notfrom Spain, you have no any
Spanish connections. So I used to be called Gavin
Smith when I was at university, which wasn't the best name in my
opinion. Sorry, Gavin Smith's out there.
Gavin Smith is actually the MD of Pizza Pilgrims General.
(02:09):
It is just. Of course it is.
That's the random name you picked.
That's naturally what I do. I, I, I unintentionally upset
people. No, I'm only joking.
I'm no, but Gavin was just a joke because Gab is short for
Gabriel. And so people whenever they hear
Gab, they they think I've said Gab.
So that's where Gavin and Smith is just a very common English
name, so hence. Do you want a spade?
Keep digging. No.
No, no, that's fine. No Gab.
(02:31):
I prefer, you know, a Spanish heritage.
My parents came to the UK and mysister and I were born here and
I've lived here ever since. Really so?
Well, welcome, we're at. We're in Voorbos today with some
lovely lighting and lots of big cameras.
Feel like we're on TVI? Know, I mean I've never seen so
much bright lights apart from the dentist chair, but this is
great. This is much more pleasurable.
I think it is. So look, before we get into it
and we rattle on, tell us a little bit about 24 Social
(02:52):
because it's becoming a frequentconversation change in mind when
I'm out meeting particularly pubpartners at the moment.
Tell us a little bit about what you guys do and where you're at.
Absolutely. So 24 Social is our web content
solution for the hospitality industry, specifically made to
tailor the needs of any kind of hospitality LED company.
So from pubs, bars, your sleepy village pubs, your city central
(03:17):
pubs and we're looking forward to expanding that outside of the
the kind of pubs and bars. We've worked with nightclubs
before and obviously the hotel industry and cafes is where we
want to kind of naturally move to.
But essentially we are a web content solution.
We have created our product fromthe ground up, specifically
tailoring to hospitality sectorsand we've actually expanded to
(03:39):
two products. So we've got our enterprise
product, which is our multiple brands management content
solution system. So it just makes everyone's life
easier to share content across multiple brands tailored to
their specific designs and needs.
And then the other one, which we've just launched, which we're
super excited about is our Myplace product.
This is for the venue manager who hasn't got time to manage
(04:01):
their website because they're more busy, which they should be
managing their staff and managing their clients at the,
at the front of the bar. We've, we've, we've basically
wanted to eliminate any barriersfrom having to manage a website
on a, on a laptop. Everyone's got on their mobiles,
everyone uses their mobile TV websites. 80% of the market
suggests that. So let's give the power to the
(04:22):
venue manager, to the pub owner,to the landlord to basically
control the website on their phone.
So we've removed the dashboard with my place.
There is no dashboard. It's all front end and anyone
can use it. And I'll go into a bit more
detail and you know, as to why we did that, but that's pretty
much the premise of our two, no?I mean, I love it and I've used
it right? And I, well, I've seen a demo,
not used it. I haven't got my own restaurant
yet. One day, there's one thing that
(04:42):
day happens. We.
Were just talking about adding more stuff to my business.
People just get a restaurant. That's it.
And the hardest job will be to choose the name of that pub or
restaurant because, well. There's definitely something on
Toast, wouldn't it? But like, I, I, I obviously went
through a demo with you guys when you, when you joined us and
we were, we were working with you.
And what I, what I really like about it.
If you've ever used a Wix or a square space or I'm trying to
think of these website builders,they are good, right?
(05:05):
And they are intuitive, but they're not like you guys.
And I think the difference for me is that as you just said,
then you're built for hostility operators.
And I physically could get any of my former GMs who I've worked
with in the past to go and buildthemselves a website in what, 3
minutes? I mean, literally you're drag
and dropping your images in, you're putting your your details
in your opening hours and you'reaway, right on a very basic
(05:26):
level. Absolutely, yeah, We're, we, we
like to call it you. You're not building, you're kind
of generating a website. Generating.
Yeah, you're basically putting your details, you're putting
your imagery, and then you choose your colour scheme and
the site's up. It's that simple, It's that
quick. You can then tailor your
experience and that's kind of phase two within it.
But the idea is if, for example,you're a pub that has a very
(05:46):
community LED, you know, type ofindividual who attends, you want
to kind of try to break the barrier of Facebook, which is
often what we find is that the dog and duck, for example, has a
Facebook page and posts all its data there.
But then you're kind of ring fencing your your customers,
Whereas actually a website is still a variable valuable asset
because it can actually help with conversions.
(06:09):
That's the key thing that we wanted to really kind of
establish and also support because Facebook is great for
the people who know how to use it and obviously of that
generation of that illness. Matter is the devil.
But yes, but this is where it's heading is that people like
Facebook is in some respect a certain segregated group now,
but actually we want to kind of allow that expansion with a
website, but not make it so complicated that it's so not
(06:31):
easy to use. So that's.
Because you go through a lot of local businesses, don't you, on
Facebook that exist on Facebook and probably born out the
pandemic when people are building groups everywhere, but
they haven't taken that next step or they've had a go at
taking that next step and it's been difficult.
Yeah, I mean, I, I went to AI, went to a venue near my local, a
village next door to where I live.
And then she said, oh, I was trying to use Rackspace to build
(06:52):
a website using their system because I bought my domain and
they offer a free solution. I just didn't, I just couldn't
get on with it. And I said, well, would you like
to try this? And and that stemmed that, that
relationship there alone just from because of just the trial
and error perspective. And we just want to eliminate
that. We want to just, there's no
trial and error. You just enter your details and
it's built. And was that the problem that
you went set out to to fix then I suppose what was the original
(07:14):
thing that went that sparked this kind of journey?
Well, I think historically because our our business has
worked with the hospitality sector for 20 odd years now and
we've worked with major operators, you know and you know
of different sizes. And the one thing that was
apparent is that no size fits all.
You have different types of groups within the operators.
(07:35):
So you have the brand kind of lead group, then you have the
tenants, then you have the independents.
And the one thing that was really apparent between all
three of them is that they just don't have the time.
They like, I think, I think, I think that's fair for every
pretty much every profession. Let's be fair.
You have to do stuff that you wish you didn't, but you have
to. Yeah.
And I think. And I think with hostility,
we're obsessed with the customer, or we should be.
(07:56):
Yeah, we're obsessed with the customer and our products,
whatever the product, whether it's a food or a drink,
whatever. And I think these things are a
distraction, although obviously now people understand that
actually it's a window to the world.
It helps them, yeah, yeah, business, et cetera, et cetera
and also makes them competitive because if you don't have that
angle, you're, you're also some next door does.
Well, this is it. It's, it's a case of if, if you
(08:16):
don't have a presence online in every digital channel, there's
generally going to be an, an opportunity missed.
I think that's the best way of saying it because you know, you
have your group of, you have a group of people who use Twitter,
who use Instagram, who use Facebook, who use websites.
And I was talking to a friend ofmine who, who, and he was like,
I'll only use Google. And I said, yeah, of course, but
Google is the starting point. You'll look at Google and then
(08:39):
you'll click on visit website. And that might be to look at
their menus, to look at their, anything that they're doing
locally, like any events. And that's kind of where it
starts because you'll start at one point, but hopefully you'll
navigate to a website because I think it's, it's such a, it's
almost like the, the establishment, isn't it, of any
kind of company is to have a, a,a website.
(08:59):
And I think venue managers and independents and when, when
they're competing with very, it's a, you know, very tough
market to compete with, they've got to try to stand out.
So that's why we wanted to go toevery kind of venue and and
cater to them for somewhere or another.
I, I, I like in a website sometimes like a shopping
centre, bear with me here, but so when I used to work in
college shows, we had lots of, Iused to have lots of shopping
(09:21):
centres. God, they hated me obviously.
So most of my sites were in shopping and they were all
always anchored by John Lewis. They used to call it anchored.
So John Lewis would be the, the main face of that shopping
centre. Then everyone else would then
sign up because John Lewis had gone in.
I actually think that the website anchors you to where
your brand sits or where your business sits and actually
allows people to come and bring more people into the mix.
And I think, and I know a lot ofpeople say, yeah, of course
(09:42):
website makes sense, Chris. But I think tailoring it to your
brand and be able to do that in a really quick and simple way
without having to hire a marketing department or someone
who, you know, often it's the guy on the floor or the guy
behind the bar or the girl who works wherever, who ends up
being the website builder because they've done it at uni
or whatever it might be. And this just takes away a lot
of that pain, doesn't it? And puts you back in a place
where it's a bit of control as well to get back in here, isn't
(10:02):
there? Absolutely.
I think with, I mean you've kindof touched on that from an
operator like with multiple brands.
And one thing that we've kind oflearned in the last few years
with our enterprise model is that there are templates that
everyone uses across the industry and how do you make
those templates more catered to your needs.
So that's what we've done with our enterprise.
We've kind of given the keys to the Kingdom really to the to the
(10:23):
marketing team so that we've gotpre pre designed templates, for
example, food and drink offers, you know, rhythm of the weeks.
These are event pages that are naturally needed upon your
website. Mother's Day, Father's Day, all
these kind of very high hitting event, you know, very specific
time of the year events, but they're all there cater to you.
And the idea then is that you just tweak them to your needs
(10:45):
and you publish them. Everyone's talking about
Christmas already, which is quite a scary statistic.
And depressing. And depressing because our
summer, it's the summer. Come on, let's just enjoy.
I think we had our two weeks. We had our two weeks, Chris.
I think I think we're good. Mr. Lopez, I would expect you to
be planning for more summer. I would love to, I, I wish I'd
put some sun, you know, sun cream on today, but
unfortunately, at last I did not.
But no, I think it's, it's apparent to us in our kind of
(11:07):
day-to-day of, of working with the hospitality sector is that
you have to have things tailoredto your needs within your brand
or your kind of image. But it's the time that that
takes. And that's how we've tried to
kind of limit that. And that not only goes for the
enterprise, but the my place solution.
So we have different types of venues using it that are sleepy
(11:28):
pubs or restaurants or bars. The best one is the cocktail bar
in we've got one in Saint Albanscalled Punching Paluka and they,
they love the dark theme. Well, who doesn't at a bar?
It's like it just, and you know,I have this argument with my
developers. It's like they hate like light
theme. They hate it.
And whenever I ask for requests and light theme, I said, oh, you
sold fashion nobody uses anymore.
So the day I landed a site that had uses light theme, I was
(11:51):
absolutely tearing into pieces with it.
It was fantastic. But it highlights the point is
that everyone's different. Everyone wants a slightly
different design. Everyone wants.
To and it's a rabbit hole, right?
I mean, I've, I did God knows why I got into this, but when I
started being not entrepreneur, I hate that word, but when I
started running my own businesses, I was obsessed with
websites like it was my own, it was my and it's like a rabbit
hole. You go onto it and you might
(12:13):
have a good eye, right? Or you understand what good
looks like, but actually doing it is I, I, I mean, that's,
there's a reason why there's professional people who do this,
because it is hard work and you need to be dedicated to it.
And I think I found that out theexpensive way.
I reckon I built 25 websites since I started my own business
really myself across Squarespace, web flow, all the
different versions. And actually the best website
(12:34):
I've done I paid someone to do. It's funny you mentioned that
because you know our team, we'vegot 2 UX experts, Pablo and Sam
and Pablo, you know, from he's been with the business for over
a decade I think now. And Sam, he's, he's kind of our,
our newbie. But they both will challenge
each other of like that doesn't look good.
And Sam is very, very hot on theaccessibility side of things
(12:54):
because that's something that sometimes is quite it needs to
be remembered but often prioritised at Phase 2.
So you'll build. Something and then like, oh, we
need to consider that. So we're very much hot on that
trend of can we cater to every single kind of individual and
what does that look like? And that goes from both the
enterprise and the kind of my place solution because, you
(13:16):
know, some people do need to have that support.
And actually then it just makes your website even more
approachable. More demographics can reach you.
And it's interesting because like the facilities are such a
great one. Sometimes you can have too many
facilities, but sometimes facilities are really good
because they promote. And I was talking to somebody
the other week and she was like,I will not go to a pub.
Doesn't have a dog walking section or like a dog friendly
(13:39):
section. And I'm like, so, so dogs are
important to you. I said yeah, yeah, yeah, they're
everything. And it's like, well, that's good
because facilities should cover dog walking.
And actually your SEO and your promotion of that website should
cater to that because you're going to get ramblers coming
through with their dogs. And this is.
I mean, this is it. We spend a lot of time in
Cornwall and that is our number one ask for us with our dog.
If we can't go with the dog, we just won't go.
Well, this is it. He's on holiday too, right?
(13:59):
This is it. It's actually his holiday.
Yours. Because you know you.
Go out. I mean, I think I feel like my
life is his to be fair. The life of a dog.
But no, it just it just highlights the point of the UX
is quite key and the data you put into the system is is quite
key to promote your products andand your style as well and
things like. That and talk us through so I I
I've been been through this a little I think I did I see my
(14:21):
place the one that I did with you yes so talk us through so
I've landed on is it self-serve or do I have to come and speak
to you first well. We, we want to essentially, if,
if you're really not tech savvy,which there are naturally some
of us are. And I to be fair, I think
everyone's you got a level and then it's almost like can you,
can you improve on that? And but some people don't have
the time as well. Yeah.
So we absolutely do cater to, ifyou're interested, we will
(14:45):
generate the website because it takes us 2 to 3 minutes.
It's not like a a long time, butyou can do it yourself.
You can go on our website, you can put in your, you can just
put an e-mail address. You can find your venue.
So we have a, a system which uses, uses basically Google to
grab your data, paste it in there.
And then you can then choose to,to then build your website upon
(15:07):
the dog and duck. So you know, that's, that's how
it starts. And then you just cherry pick
the styles, the look and feel, upload your photos.
And then you use the AI generating systems that we have
to generate your event data. You can generate your about U.S.
data if you wish to. And you can just put something
in like rustic pub and then it will generate a, a template that
looks like a template. It grabs your, it grabs your
(15:29):
opening times from Google. So again, you don't have to
input anything, but I'll save the best feature, which we're
really proud of is the AI menu. So you might be wondering what
that is. It's basically if you're at a
pub and you've got my life on AI, this is it, an AI menu.
Chris, what is on your menu today?
But you go to a pub, you've got a chalkboard and you've got all
your menu on your chalkboard. You can literally take a photo
(15:51):
off your phone and you click upload and it will upload that
as a menu onto your website. There is no need to interact.
It grabs the data and then you can upload photos if you wish to
because there is a demographic of people who like to see what
they're eating. And that actually generates
potentially another group of individuals looking at your
website. So but the AI generator, it's
just to save you time. If you if you like, if you've
(16:11):
got a bunch of starters, mains and desserts and you just want
to quickly upload it, that's theidea.
And if you've got like a Sunday special, I was.
Going to say seasonal stuff for.Seasonal stuff is a great one.
We know we can cater to multiplemenus.
We've got children's menus, senior menus, senior price menus
and things like that. It's all there, available at the
touch of a button. Now obviously you can do old
(16:31):
school. You can still upload your PDF
and that can be there. You can download that.
You can use the system to generate the content if you
wanted to. Just cherry pick which ones you
wanted. So it's not about
one-size-fits-all like it's sorry, it's not about one
journey, it's how you wish to use.
Yeah, the personalization of it is still, and I think that's
what people look for when that'swhy people end up in a mess when
they build their own website because they want to do it their
(16:52):
way and have it in. But actually you can still do
that through a framework that someone's built for you, which
is what you guys have done. And I'm guessing from a
franchise point of view in that way as well.
It's quite nice, right, to be able to say kind of we own the
key. I think you said the keys to the
Kingdom. So kind of like we've got
control of this. I'm thinking from a central
office. We work with some big pub
partners where we're trying to find them solutions.
In fact, one yesterday we were talking to about how they
(17:13):
control, they don't want to own it as in they don't want to get
stuck into it, but they want to have that access.
So for landlord leaves another one that's a lot, that's an easy
transfer, it's not something difficult to do and you guys
cover that. Exactly.
We we have different structures within our enterprise that we,
we call it the venue manager mode.
So the operators at the very toplevel, the head office, will
control certain data, but they might want to give the venue
(17:34):
manager of a set like. Images or.
Something exactly they might, they might want to just control
the food and drinks, they might want to just control the opening
times, things like that. So they don't touch every aspect
of it. But it's all controllable, so
you can choose which areas you'dlike them to access or not.
And then the same applies to thethe Myplace application.
If you don't need to use events because you're not showcasing
(17:54):
events, you can turn that off. We've introduced sporting
fixtures because a lot of the wet walks, they naturally
showcase sporting games. You know, with Premier League
coming up, it's perfect timing to start to kind of promote
what's coming up. So that's all integrated.
But again, it's if you don't have football fixtures or you
don't have food, you can take turn those off so you don't have
like wasted space on the website.
And the the reason we've done that is again, it's just because
(18:17):
no size fits all. You know, it's a case of that
journey and making sure that they're everyone's covered in
some way or another. And what's I suppose, have you
got like AI don't want stories, not right, the words?
Have you got like an example of someone who's taken kind of
worked with you and had a bit You mentioned the lady before.
It was kind of like I just can'tget this going.
Have you got any more examples of people who have taken you on
and kind of gone? Had a bit of a wow moment?
Yeah, I mean, we had so punchingPalooka is a great example that
(18:41):
he was struggling to upload events on his website.
He's a cocktail. What's a mixologist?
That's a mixologist. Mixologist.
Like a posh bartek. Exactly.
Well, I think we're undermining the mixologies there.
But no, I mean like a good cocktail is hard to find
sometimes. But I'll take it back.
But but he realized that for him, it's a case of uploading
(19:03):
events in a, in a timely manner to promote the Friday that's
upcoming to showcase the kind ofcocktails that they're working
on. And he was struggling with it on
his, on his previous system. So we basically just gave him
the access to the Myplace application that we built for
him. And he goes just try it just
just, and it's just, it's essentially a form, but it has
like 3 fields with AI integratedelements.
(19:25):
Upload Upload your picture on your mobile.
The pictures are optimised. So you know, the thing about
iPhones and and Android phones is that the pictures can be
huge, but we we have to optimizethem immediately.
Otherwise it impacts your your page rankings and your.
Speed and you can do all this onyour mobile.
All of it, Yeah. Yeah, you don't need a laptop.
The amount of like I, I went to a venue because I don't even
have a laptop anymore, so I can't do this.
(19:47):
That's just, what have you got Mobile.
Of course I've got a mobile. Like judging me for asking that
question. And it's like, well, you can do
it that way. And it was like, OK, that's
cool. But he, he basically said he's
busy, He just needs to build, make an event and make it live
straight away. And that's it.
And, and I think that's a success story within my place.
But the, the other thing with enterprise that we really try to
make real a big, a big noise about is like we're not the
(20:10):
experts. And I, I can't believe I'm going
to say this because the experts are the people in the industry,
such as the, the operators. Now obviously we've been working
in the hospitality sector for somany years and we know what they
need to a degree. But they might be coming up with
some radical ideas that they want to promote new things.
And we're like, well, what do you need?
What do you need the system to do?
Whereas if you go to like a sitecall or a WordPress, you might
(20:32):
have to find some how to do that.
We will add that to our application for you if we feel
like it's the right path for theapplication.
The application's road map is designed by the people who use
it as well as ourselves. Because we'll come up with some
ideas too. But like, if, if they needed to
do something, we'll build it. A great example is we've done,
you know, like gamification is always a great example of how we
(20:53):
can introduce new features and things like that.
And also kind of like the integrated API journeys for
booking. Nobody wants to see a widget on
a page anymore. They want to see the branded
page. The user experience needs to be
defined that way and it needs tobe all mobile for you, like so
mobile first mobile, everything,but desktop is still got its
place, you know, because I thinka lot of people still make lots
(21:13):
of corporate bookings that way, things like that.
So we just tried to make that road map accessible to the
people we work with. And that's, that's feeds the,
the progress of it too. So that's kind of the, the big
thing about it. Sorry.
I was waiting for the trolley togo past.
Get that? If she had some cocktails on
there, maybe. No, no, maybe.
Maybe it's the posh bartender. Posh bartender that you?
Talked about. And what about and I suppose and
(21:35):
you mentioned integrations and iterations to the product.
Yeah. What does the future look like
for 24 Social? And so because obviously you can
go, this can be very broad and wide.
Well, it's interesting because we, we, we've gone to a lot of
conferences this year that talk about LO and no, that talk about
the demographic of people not drinking much.
We've, we've gone to the fact that there's a lot more venues
(21:57):
opening up as independents as well.
So a lot more kind of lease and tenanted is happening.
So we're trying to cater to the need of that, that demographic
of how do we, how do we incorporate new features to kind
of showcase new products such asthe lower nose and things like
that. And obviously that's all kind of
templated in terms of pages, butthere's always ways that we can
(22:17):
kind of expand on that. We've realised that there's a
lot more, there's a lot more integrations we need to
complete. So we're integrating with lots
of partners, but that list continuously grows.
A great example, yeah. You'll never end that as.
Well, never end. You know, we've been working on,
you know, shout out to Gig Pig. They're fantastic.
We worked with Gig Pig. Yeah.
And you know, I, I love what they're doing with the whole
idea of music is such a key feature in pubs and bars and
(22:41):
there's natural integrations there that we're kind of it's,
you know, it's on our own map and things like that.
But for us it's as well, it's all about the hotel industry,
you know, the booking engines aswell.
We feel like there's a lot of areas in the booking engines
that can be naturally improved with what we've learnt from the
journeys that you're seeing. I think it's quite clunky, isn't
it? Or has been quite clunky in the
past. No, no, I'm not offending.
Anything. No, no, no.
I think I. Think but that I think it's more
(23:02):
the journey, right? But but everything is changing
to a degree because you don't just have to book now on a
website. You could book, integrate it
through Google, you can book in certain other ways, but I think
what's quite apparent is the less clicks the better.
And AI needs to be able to book for you.
I think that's a test that we'vekind of integrated is can you
ask an AI tool to make a bookingfor you?
So can it navigate your website and generate a booking from
(23:24):
accessing your website? Because sometimes that's a
pitfall because the AI will get so far and then not be able to
complete the booking. So we're looking at things like
that to ensure that every aspectof a support system or a an
integration can be met. Like people like Adsort, I don't
know if you know those guys who are voice, voice AI where you
can book through the voice AI. And I was had them on the other
week and it was insane. Like the quality of the and the
(23:46):
response time really quick. It's really accurate.
Yeah. And it's just and you know,
through a website obviously makes it even smoother, right.
So you go, as you said, one click straight in and then
you're and then you're chatting to a human.
Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think obviously
like with, with chat bots and things like that, that was like
the old school way that we used to work with.
And that's kind of basically being eroded by the AI
integration. What we realized that it should
(24:09):
never stop because we have to integrate new features to our
application to to meet the demands of the public that what
they're expecting. You know, what is the industry
working on with AI tools that it's such a buzzword, but it,
it, it has to be because of the nature of the progress that it's
making. Yeah, it's fast.
It's fast. Again, it's the idea hopefully
is to make your life easier and,you know, save you time so you
(24:29):
can concentrate on on attending to people at the bar or you
know, or or your staff or whatever is needed really for
you know that that shouldn't be taking time up with your
website. No, totally agree.
And if people are listening and they're thinking this is quite
interesting, how do I get involved?
How do they get hold of you Gab?I know you're do you hang out on
LinkedIn at? All Oh yeah, I'm on LinkedIn.
You can you can reach out to me on my usual networks.
No, LinkedIn is a great one. And you know our website is 24
(24:52):
social dot IO. It's that simple.
A lot of data is there, you know, if you need to reach out
to us, you know, there's a number there and we'll happily
talk to you and talk to your needs.
And I think the key thing is, isto hopefully understand what it
is that you're looking for. What what and what barrier does
anyone have with something that they already have?
If you don't have a website, of course, that's great.
But if you have a website, what is it that's stopping you?
And I think that's always a question.
(25:13):
But I also like to ask like, what's your journey?
Because then you get the interesting story about like I
also was talking to you before we started about how many plates
do you actually spin, Chris? That is the question.
How many more plates will you bespinning by the end of this
problem? Right.
And I think that you're doing two things.
You're powering SME, right? Because if you look at the
Myplace product, you're actuallypart of their text stack.
(25:34):
Yeah. And you know, for an SME, you'd
say they've got a text stack. It's a bit, they're probably not
thinking like that, but actuallythe reality, they've got pause,
they've got workforce management, probably got some
kind of CRME tool and they need a website.
So you're powering that first part of the the journeys you
want to call it for SME, but then you've got that big role to
play for these guys that grow, but nothing grows with them
sometimes. So I think it's a massive
(25:55):
problem. I think not just in hostility
across a lot of industries whereyou'll build a website or you'll
build a portal to show off what you do at certain stage at stage
6 or 7 sites. That's right.
Then you end up at 50 and you haven't really, or you've
iterated as you've gone and you end up with this kind of
Frankenstein of of a website andyou just need to stop and
review, right? And I think people like you can
kind of sit there, take away thepain, listen to what they need
(26:17):
to get out of it and what the pain points are and go away and
fix it. And I think that's that's
something that I suppose a lot of people don't really get to
until they meet Someone Like You.
Well, this is, it's a, it's a very good point because you can
have multiple formats, multiple designs that might work, but
they might not work. And, and we've tried to ensure
that what we can provide to you is a much more centralised view
(26:42):
for controlling all your domainsand controlling all your
designs, all powered by one tool.
That's the key thing. So if you have multiple tools or
multiple designs, how can we kind of tell you that to make it
simplified and kind of streamlined.
But the one thing is you can't lose flair.
You have to, the brand has to bepassionate about what you want
to kind of showcase and application needs to be able to
(27:02):
deliver that. So we've worked with partners
before. That said, we want it to really
be a bit different. I said, OK, what is it you need?
And we need the design to be notlike a standard banner.
We need this to be that. So then our UX experts come in
and we go like, OK, well, we cando this, we can do that.
But it's that journey. It's the whole conversation
point. And then that's what kind of
what you get from us. It's that we don't just stop at
the, it's built. It's very much a relationship
(27:24):
that continues. And that's what good on boarding
is. It's, it's a case of making sure
that the support is there and then hopefully you're excited by
what you're building to then funnel the road map for US 100%.
So that's the key thing there. And I think for us, we we and
the reason we love wrong is I love tech on toast because I
built it. It was about working with the
people behind the tech and I think relationships are
everything and anyone who's listening for 24 social, the
(27:46):
people we've met from behind it are all just cool, right always
sound great. Oh no, no, but you won't like
this. But they, they always turn up
the smile on the face. There's it was a willingness to
help. And I think everyone we've
introduced you to, you've met all of a sudden, it moves very
quickly, which just shows that you're actually solving a
problem. That's it.
I think everyone's got a story to tell and everyone's got have
their journey. If you're an entrepreneur, if
(28:06):
you're a tenant, if you're an operator, you will have had
trials and tribulations over thelast five years to get to where
you are. And we're no different.
And I think that's the key thingis to make sure that what we've
built is going to make a life easier.
And then that way your time should be dedicated to the
passion that you have, which is the people that you're serving
or the services that you're providing.
The website should be a passion regardless, but that should be
(28:28):
dealt with within us and you as a relationship.
So that's kind of what we want to do really.
That's our mission statement. It really is to kind of be the
top company to support the hospitality industry within our
web presence, within our contentmanagement solutions that we
have and we're expanding those. We're trying to offer better
value. Sporting fixtures is a big one.
You know, there's, you know, there's new features within the
(28:49):
the front end that we're lookingat.
What else can we do? And we kind of would love to
know more from the customers themselves as to what they want.
And sometimes they don't know what they want until they have
it delivered. This is very true.
They're like, oh, you built that, but I'd like it to do
this. Well, that's.
Face. Yeah, but often it's very hard,
isn't it? Until you see in front of you is
that I'm a very visual person and that's when someone designs
them. I know, guys, I need to see it
(29:09):
before I can tell you 100% whether I think we're going in
the right direction. And what about you then?
Because obviously that's the product and what you do on the
day-to-day. What about a day off?
You told me some interesting stuff.
You said you were compared for the school.
So with a voice like mine, Chris, you.
They'll be judging you now. That's it.
No, my my wife started as a DJ and we've actually got a few DJs
(29:30):
in our in my circle. Like Nick, the founder of the
business was a DJ back in the day.
Right. OK.
Are we talking Ibiza or are we talking local boozer?
I think it might be Croydon based.
I don't know. I don't know.
I think I wonder if he's played Ibiza.
Actually, I don't know. No, but my history, so my
passions are. I've got a young daughter who we
just completed our first 10K runthis weekend and she's only ten.
(29:53):
Wow. So she's she's I'm trying.
I kind of really encourage her to kind of keep motivated, you
know, you know, girls in sport is a really big thing of mine to
to get her moving and and it keeps me fit because she pushes
me and it's embarrassing how farit literally pushes you or no.
Well, no, I mean some, I mean, without the fear of tripping
there there is. Sometimes she just like mocks me
a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(30:14):
And it's that little like everybody.
I've got an 18 year old boy. I'm sorry.
Yeah, I've spent. When they dis you it's harsh to
take so you have to just step up.
I played football in the garden with him for about 7 years when
he was 8. You know, from like 7 to 14
before he started Mini and all that and I used to bathroom like
I'd like. We used to literally score an
overhead kicks. I was living my dream and then
he got good. And then it was a humbling.
Experience. Yeah.
And then I was punished. So you've got how old?
(30:36):
10 years. Old.
She's 10 years old and yeah, she's really passionate about
sports, so we try to really kindof encourage that.
Other things like my colleagues and I, we love to play golf and,
you know, just get outdoors really.
And we love our kind of, we're all remote based, but we really
value the importance of meeting up.
(30:58):
And we, you know, we used to come here to Shoreditch way and
we just, you know, just go to different venues and just
experience them. We've got our favorite pubs in
here in the area and we just kind of ensure that we have a
good time together when we're when we're all when we're all
here. So that's kind of like my
passions really. And I love going back to Spain.
I love speaking Spanish when I can, you wouldn't tell with my
accent. I'm not even gonna.
(31:18):
Stop. I can't even put it on.
You're like. I'm literally I'm on dua.
What's it called? Not dua lipa dua.
Lipa, you're on Dua Lipa, right?I actually saw her a few weeks
ago, Wembley. But dua Lipa my my daughter's
challenged me to learn. Oh, good to learn Spanish by.
I think I've got till October tohave a good to have a good.
I speak French quite well. But do you?
Yeah, Let's not even go there. My colleague Pablo would love to
(31:39):
chat to you. Yeah, SO can speak.
I did that A level men at uni and stuff for them.
But but yeah, Spanish is my next.
I kind of tinker around with it,but I'm not, I'm not even now.
I know you speak Spanish, I'm not going to bother.
But that's my challenge for me, because when you get old, you
need to challenge. No, that's it.
That's it. Like like for me, it's a case of
I want to try to run a marathon.My knees aren't great.
So I'm just building up to it and just, I'm trying to, yeah,
(32:02):
just just just do more things with my daughter, you know,
because while they're young, youwant to enjoy those years
because as you say, Chris, as they get older, 100% mate, you
know, they, they get the SAS levels increase.
So I'm just not looking forward to that.
A different type of SAS to what this podcast is already about.
That's right, exactly. That is a different type of SAS.
It's. Already is.
Yeah, Yeah, that'll be a post one day.
Look, thanks, Gab. I appreciate it.
We appreciate working with you as well.
(32:22):
We really, we love you guys and what you do.
I think sometimes we're tech canbe very complicated and I think
24 social is very simple. I'm not trying to be rude.
No, no, no. That's that's kind of the motto
really, is to keep it. Yeah.
And I think that that resonates with the customers we talked to
so long. May that continue.
Thank you very much. Have a lovely day.
And likewise, hopefully everywhere you go, you'll be lit
up on the on the rest of you, I'm hoping.
(32:43):
People will stop me in the street now.
That's that's what I want. Yeah, that's all gonna happen
anyway. Thank you for coming to Tech on
Toast podcast. That was 24 social.
You can find them on the Tech onToast website, on the
marketplace, and you can find Gab floating around LinkedIn and
on the contact details. Give us some again.
You gave us. Before yeah, so it's 24 social
dot IO and it's Gab Lopez on LinkedIn.
Lovely. Thank you mate, have a great
day.
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