July 15, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode, Chris is joined by Nikki Perry, VP of Product at TripleSeat, who flew in from Boston for her very first visit to London. They dive into Nikki’s journey from bussing tables at 13 to leading product strategy at one of the most exciting events platforms in hospitality tech.Expect a brilliant blend of real-world hospitality experience and cutting-edge product thinking — from how TripleSeat is cutting admin, increasing conversions, and transforming pre-orders in the UK, to how AI is quietly becoming the venue’s best friend.They also cover: • The rise of 3D event planning (think The Sims, but for weddings and private dining) • The difference between US and UK event culture (spoiler: pre-ordering cocktails is wild to Americans) • How AI integrations like AdSalt are streamlining inbound calls and converting more leads • Why TripleSeat’s newest tool, PartyPay, is making painful event payments a thing of the past • What’s coming next in the product roadmap (hint: AI assistants, natural language reports, and hotel tech upgrades)Nikki shares how TripleSeat remains laser-focused on one core user: the event manager — and how the team stays close to the ground through regular customer visits, product feedback loops, and actual party-throwing.✨ Key Takeaways: • 📊 Built by Operators – Most of the TripleSeat team has worked in restaurants or events, making the product truly hospitality-first. • 🧠 AI for Admin – From call-handling bots to natural language reporting tools, AI is embedded in the TripleSeat future. • 🍽 UK vs US – The cultural difference around pre-ordering food and drinks highlights the importance of local product nuance. • 🛒 Self-Service Sales – Tools like TripleSeat Direct and guest portals allow for faster bookings and better guest experiences. • 💳 Payments Solved – PartyPay means no more faxed credit card forms (yes, that was still a thing). • 🧭 Always Iterating – The product roadmap is fuelled by customer feedback, and prioritised by real impact, not just loud requests.🔗 Mentioned in this episode: • TripleSeat • AdSalt AI for hospitality • Tech on Toast📣 Connect with us:Got feedback, questions, or want to be featured?👉 Visit techontoast.community👉 Follow us on LinkedIn: Tech on Toast
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Triple Seat really empowers venues to manage all of their,
all types of events really, so all types of events that they
could do within Triple Seat and we really want to focus on the
guest experience absolute. Yeah, where you've felt an
integration with Triple Seat. Yeah.
Tell me a little bit about that,because, because we're leaning
into AI. We sure are.
I mean, everybody is. May have to get I can't go
through an episode now without mentioning them.
(00:26):
You can't. Think there's a trend of
hospitality folks realizing thatthere's another way to be in
hospitality, whether that's in tech or, or kind of just
different ways. Now.
Have you ever played the game Sims?
That's exactly what it's like. It's it's built on Unity, which
is literally a video game platform.
We don't even charge for users. So we really truly believe that
if you work at a venue that has triple seat, you should have a
(00:47):
login. You should be able to see what's
going on. So Party Day is here now and
it's launching in globally. It's launching in the UK in
about two weeks. The last trip that the triple
seat folks took here, they were also asked to pre-order
cocktails, which was like completely wild to us.
We were like a week before. How do I know what I'm gonna
drink? Welcome to the next episode of
the tick and taste podcast and say I'm delighted to be joined
all the way from Boston yes, allthe way from Boston at Nicky
(01:09):
Perry, VP of product at triple seat.
How are you I'm. Good, thanks for having me.
You're welcome, and first time in London as well.
It is, yeah. How's.
That been. It's been wonderful.
We've had some amazing dinners at customers and we've walked
around a little bit. Luckily we have a London team
here. Yes, that's like we have built
in tour. Big.
Chaperone Yeah, yeah. They've been following, showing
us around and bringing us all around.
And, and you've come on the first week we've had weather, as
(01:31):
in good weather it's. Been amazing.
It's been sunny. And I'm gonna say this is all
normal. I'm gonna say 7.
This is not fun. Yeah.
No, it's about, I think, yeah, it's probably up there.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. But all I know it's hot.
We're from Wales, so it's very hot.
Look, and we want, let's talk toyou today about product.
Obviously that's where you sit with triple C, but actually
before we get to triple C, your career was built in what we all
do right back in the industry. So tell us a little bit about
(01:53):
your journey to this point. It's interesting to know because
I think it's shaped what you're doing now.
Absolutely. I feel like it's the typical
journey, right? So I started bussing tables when
I was 13. 13's young. Yeah, you have to get working
papers. You have to get a little permit.
Yeah. So I started busing tables like
summer and school vacations whenI was young and then went into
serving, went into bartending, event managing, eventually found
(02:16):
my way into like management operations.
I was a director of OPS for a Boston based hospitality group
and I had twins and I took some time off and I wasn't really
sure how I was going to get backinto the hours and the demand of
that type of job. And luckily Triple C and I found
each other and it's been, it's been a were.
You using the product in your inyour operational job then.
(02:37):
I was, yeah. So the event managers that
worked at the the restaurant group that I worked for did use
Triple C Yeah. And that's, I'm not unique.
So a lot of people at Triple C have the same story.
And I think it really matters because we have been in those
trenches like we have been in our user's shoes.
So we most of us, I would say, Iwould say 80% of the.
(02:58):
Customers. Is it almost a deliberate
recruitment? Yeah.
For me, it was for sure. Now I think there's a trend of
hospitality folks realizing thatthere's another way to be in
hospitality, whether that's in tech or or kind of just
different ways. Now I think with technology that
allows them, I. Sort of think everyone loves the
industry, right? They want to stay connected.
But at some point, especially with me, Same for me.
I left the Hard Rock. I was at the Hard Rock for nine
(03:19):
years and I left the Hard Rock because I had shake my my oldest
now. OK, yeah.
And that was the same thing. I couldn't do the 2 in the
mornings anymore. I mean, it was different.
We like we partied. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it was, it
was, it was a lot. But then you realize actually
there's another way to connect with the industry.
So. And look for anybody who doesn't
know about Triple Seat, who haven't met John Caramey, who
wanders around London telling everybody about it, Tell us a
little bit about the product andwhat does it do just for people
(03:41):
who are hearing it for the first.
Time, yeah, absolutely. So Triple Seat really empowers
venues to manage all of their, all types of events really.
So all types of events that theycould do within Triple Seat.
And we really want to focus on the guest experience.
So we allow them to really surprise and delight their
customers with these wonderful experiences.
And we handle everything from leads all the way through to
(04:03):
creating the function sheets, all the way through to sending
thank you notes after and even prospecting, reaching out,
finding folks to rebook and making sure that you're keeping
up with your clients. We're a full CRM so we really
give them. We'd really try to be an all in
one solution for them when it comes to events.
And born out the states. So the product first born out
the States and then and you've been in London a year or maybe
(04:24):
more than that. So I would say, so we're, we
were born in the States, we're founded in the Boston area.
And then I would say what happened kind of organically was
a lot of US restaurant groups were opening up locations in
London. So we started kind of getting a
location here, a location there.And then probably about two
years I would say now we've beenreally, we have an office here
(04:48):
and we have a small team here and we've really been growing
our presence. I.
Think it's interesting. Also out of Boston was toast,
right? Yeah, did a similar journey, of
course. And when I last met John, we
were on a panel and we were talking about 2D and 3D floor
plans, which was quite, I won't say groundbreaking because the
technology's out there, but actually for this type of
product, it's really useful for the venues, right, to be able to
(05:09):
showcase what they've got. Can you tell us a little bit
about that feature because I think it's pretty cool.
Yeah, absolutely. So this feature was by
acquisition. So it was a company called
Beemerry and they have wheat now.
We it's called triple seat by floor plans by triple seat now
and it has 2D and three 3D capabilities.
And what it allows is the venueskind of build their sites.
It's so cool. The venues build out their sites
(05:31):
and then the guests are able to kind of walk through do these
fly throughs and kind of see thedesign right down to the table
like the table scape like the the silverware and the plates on
the table. Have you ever played the game
Sims yes. Do you remember that's exactly
what it's like it's it's built on Unity, which is literally a
video game platform. So it's like an entire video
(05:51):
game aspect that these users get.
And what it does, I think is that the guests show up at the
venue and it's exactly what they.
Envisioned and that's huge, right?
You know, when you're booking a party or even when you think
about a small party, right, as opposed to a huge event, you
just want to kind of feel, especially for people who are
doing weddings and stuff where they really can't second guess
what's going to happen on the day.
They want that kind of almost that reassurance before they
(06:13):
even put a pre-order in or anything.
It might be. And I think that's that just
really kind of showcases all these great venues across the
land. Absolutely.
It's a confidence builder for these.
And you're right, like the smallevents, it's still just as
important, even if you're askingthem.
Or do you want to be in this style setup?
Do you want your tables like this?
It's hard for a guest to visualize and make that
decision. But then you're talking about
(06:33):
weddings. I mean, what a cool tool for
people getting married. I mean, they literally go in and
they pick their napkin colors and they pick their
centerpieces. Yeah.
And everything just. It's amazing.
And I think for the venues as well, right, Yeah, it's pretty
because the legwork that goes into showing people around,
showing them what's going on, resetting for certain parties,
like you're saying actually you can just fix all that and you
know, record, I don't know how does it work?
They record 3 or 4 different types of setting Or can they?
(06:55):
Yeah. So they, they go through all
these different types of settings and they're just
templates in the in the floor plan software.
So they log in and they say, OK,they they picked this and this
and it video kind of generates what that what that floor plan
will look like based on what thegas picks.
And the actual problems you're solving for these guys, we
talked about one there, right? So actually the event managers
are having, you know, already you're taking away some of their
(07:16):
workload to enable them to do what they should be doing, which
is selling and making sure capacity is done.
What, where are the real kind ofpinch points for people who end
up coming to you when people come to you and say, right, we
need your help or we're looking for some kind of solution.
Is there a common use or is it quite broad?
For floor plans or triple? C Just overall triple C.
So I would say there's, I would say it is quite broad.
It is quite broad, but I would say there's a very specific
(07:37):
things one says managing their leads, they're going to have all
these inquiries and they're all coming in and they do not want
to double book and they really want to keep things organized.
So I would say managing their leads and then exactly what you
described is just saving time. They want to process, they want
triple C to really provide theirteam with a process so that that
event manager can get back to selling, back to talking to the
(07:58):
customer and not all of this kind of pen to paper.
Yeah, admin work that they've been doing.
And I think there's because there's order in there right as
well. And you take the journey from.
So pre-order is something we're developing right now.
Yeah. So right now in triple C, we go
directly from, if there's a, we call it a lead page, which is an
inquiry out here, that's on yourwebsite, that's in your social
(08:18):
media marketing. So you embed that.
Yeah, it's embedded anywhere that they can put a form, they
can put it guest fill it out comes directly to triple C.
They manage all of those leads and their goal was to convert it
over to a confirmed event. They build their function
sheets, their run of show, any document that they would need,
all communication happens. So within the platform staff
(08:41):
too. So the staff is communicating
and staff communications and theguest communication is there,
but pre-order. It's funny that you bring that
up. So that's not a thing we do in
the States. Yes.
Well we were talking about this on the pre call, weren't we
about the fact that actually there are some nuances between
what you guys do over there and what we're doing here.
But that is a thing here that. Is we need to?
Yeah. We can't cope, Nikki.
Yeah. So when we first said, oh, we
(09:02):
need pre-order, we thought that it was just selecting the menu
like the primary Booker or the contact.
And we're like, we have that, like this is how you do that.
And they were like, no, we need to know that John's coming and
that John's a vegetarian. I'm like John can't cope and as
he gets, really. Yeah.
So it's completely unique UK feature that we're building so.
Strange because we think it's normal, obviously, but you?
It's very organized. I mean, it's very organized.
(09:23):
We like a queue. We like to do everything, you
know, informal. So we just kicked it off.
It's part of a larger initiativewhere we're the guest portal is
something that is really wonderful about triple Seat.
So not only are we really servicing the venues, but we're
servicing they're guests. And we don't want the guest to
know what triple seat is. It's not our, those are not our
customers, they're our customers, customers.
So this guest portal is completely branded.
(09:45):
It looks and feels like an extension of.
Journey of your chosen venue. Yeah.
But then we have the documents there, they can message there,
they can organize things. They really get this whole
little experience in themselves and that is where we're going to
add the pre-order functionality as well.
Just yeah, just for you guys coming.
Later, maybe it's the European thing, I don't know.
Is it just? No, No, it's just this is it.
(10:06):
On the last trip, the last trip that the Triple C folks took
here, they were also asked to pre-order cocktails, which was
like, completely wild to us. We were like a week before.
How do I know what I'm gonna do?Yeah, Yeah.
We. Know what we like and we want
it. But I have to say now, so we've
been obviously done a couple group dinners since I've been
here and they're so organized and.
Timely. I do wonder if the venues have
(10:26):
driven that behaviour through betrying to be efficient
themselves before tech. And they are, yeah.
You know, trying. They are.
I mean, it's so efficient and timely.
I mean, you're going to dinner with 15 people or so.
A lot of times you feel a lag and those can take a long time.
And I feel like over here it's really second nature to the
venue, so I think there's something to be said about it.
I'm. Gonna love you yeah and you know
(10:47):
you're not and also you mentioned to me Adsalt yeah.
Where you've built an inspiration with triple C Yeah,
tell me a little bit about that because, because we're leaning
into AI are. We sure are.
I mean, everybody is. I have to get.
I can't go through an episode now without mentioning them.
You can't. You can't.
And I go back and forth with it,like, I mean, it's amazing and I
love it and it's here to stay. It's still very buzzy.
It feels very trendy at the moment, but it's not a trend.
(11:09):
It is here to stay and it is going to be a large part of our
day-to-day operations. It already is, I think for most.
Like just generally. Yeah, yeah.
So ADSOL is a really cool company.
So they use AI essentially as a host or reservationist.
So they answer the phone 24/7. So the restaurant answer, yeah,
I get the answer 24/7. I love them already.
And they can this AI bought or AI agent, I should say, can
(11:33):
handle a ton of different requests.
So yesterday we're actually at an event and they did a demo for
like a group for our customers. Can it work?
They can make a reservation. They can.
They'll ask dietary restrictions, the date, the
time, special requests. You can call.
Think about the amount of times that a restaurant has to stop
and answer the phone for things like what's your dress code?
(11:53):
Yeah. What are your hours?
Is your kitchen still open? It answers all of those things,
but with triple seats. Specifically, it handles private
dining inquiries. So if you call and say I'm
really interested in hosting a private event, it gathers all
this information. It asks me your name and what
day, what type of event, and it puts that all directly in it's.
Going to say that then populate into triple C.
Instantly the phone hang up, thephone hangs up and the leads in
(12:15):
the event manager's inbox. So yeah, it was.
It's really cool. And it and because I think
that's where great tech always use Deliverrect as an example in
the in the UK while they're all over the world now, but where
they took a problem of order injection.
People were putting orders through an iPad and they took
that away and they had several iPads moved into one.
Same for you guys here. What you're doing is that
actually the event manager's role prior to triple seat, for
(12:37):
instance, was probably, you know, I would say a 6040 split
between admin and actually selling.
And actually the reduction on admin already you can hear just
through the processing of leads through the management of leads
for the management of the actualevent is already going away.
It's quite scary at once in a good way where it can get to
right where these people will have so much time back to be
able to do their jobs properly. Are you getting that feedback
(12:57):
from the ground We. Are, and I would say that's
actually a really good call it when we started, so during
COVID, we launched triple C direct and triple C direct is
meant to cut down admin time. So a lead comes into triple C
and an event manager spends an extraordinary amount of time
taking that lead, working that lead, making it a prospect,
making it a tentative, getting it confirmed, getting all this
(13:18):
information. And we really cut that down so
that the guest can go online andkind of do the self-service
booking process. And one of the things that we
stressed was this is to save youtime.
This is in no way, shape or formto try to cut out event managers
jobs or do your job for you. It's to take the part of your
job like you're saying, that admin part, that tedious part,
(13:40):
take that and automate it a bit and then go ahead and sense give
you more time to sell it's. Like a hotel, right?
It's like occupancy the way I would if I had an event manager
work me back in the day. Well, we did it Hard Rock,
obviously. We say to them we've got
occupancy, we've got 15 buyouts,we need to sell the shits in the
budget. You need to do that.
Yeah. And the problem we had with them
is that they were doing it but then managing all the chaos that
goes around events because no one Booker is the same, right?
(14:02):
Absolutely. They're all fun to work with and
they all want their own things, which is why we do pre-orders
three years in advance in the UK.
Exactly. But yeah, it's it, it's been
really tricky I think for a longtime.
And I think part of that puzzle,as it would be because I always
talk about frustration for people waiting to order in a in
a normal dining environment and then waiting to order, waiting
to get the food and then waitingto pay.
Yeah. And pay I think is still or has
(14:24):
been an issue around people checking out when they're trying
to do these kind of things. But you guys are also fixed.
Like, you've came here and fixedeverything.
But yeah, you're also fixing that part of the puzzle, aren't
you? We are, yeah.
So like any, any place that we can kind of automate and save
those tasks we're trying to. And one of the biggest pain
points was paying. Yeah, it's manual.
And when you're in a venue in a brick and mortar, there is a way
(14:44):
for you to pay because you're there and the credit card
machine is there. With the events world, it was so
antiquated. I mean, they were either filling
out a credit card form, which you can't e-mail because that's
not compliant. You have to fax that over a
secure line, or they're calling and literally reading their card
numbers off. And it's just, it was about
managers were saying this is toomanual, this is too manual.
And I also think in 2025 as a consumer, you expect an easy way
(15:09):
to pay. So we actually launched our own
payment processing directly in Triple C, it's called Party Pay
and it is extending out here Party Pay Global.
So that way they can conveniently take payments
directly inside of Triple C And then we're actually leveraging
integration. So we have integrations
launching this summer, one with QuickBooks and then one in the
fall with 0. And that way those payments that
(15:33):
are made in Triple C automatically online easily are
now going to just go directly into their accounting system
because. Reconcile, yeah, because that's
the other thing, the reconciliation part for an FA or
ACFO, whoever is doing that or an FD, they look at me dropping
all these abbreviations, a finance person, but it's.
Different than the event manager.
I think that's what's the biggest piece is that the event
manager is like great, these convenient payments are
(15:55):
happening, but to your point, the finance people are like put
in another system like now I have to reconcile this and I
have to figure this out. So that's what the integration
is meant to help. It's it's so cool.
And I'm saying with and with allthese additions, are you seeing
like the real impact where you have that heavy usage of triple
C, which I imagine is Christmas or Mother's Day or you know, I'm
thinking of UK stuff here. But you know, where where you
get that kind of influx? Is that where you see the real
(16:16):
benefit? Or is that where you can, I
suppose, because you guys have abit of a helicopter view in it
to see the product really at itsbest around those occasions, I
suppose. Yeah, I would say for sure
festive season, Christmas seasonis one of, you know, the biggest
times for, for, for triple seat.The other thing I would say is
wedding season and summer tend to see a huge influx.
One of the things that's great about triple seed is that we
(16:37):
also have the tools to help themget the bookings kind of in
those off peak times. So like something like triple C
direct can really help you kind of get bookings on Monday
lunches, offseason where maybe you don't normally get those.
But yeah, I would say it's, it'samazingly impactful in those
really, really busy times. But event managers, I mean, they
(16:58):
live and breathe inside Triple CThey're there every day, all
day. Yeah.
I suppose, and that's I suppose for you guys, it's kind of
that's a great thing for the product, right?
Because because people are usingit to do their jobs rather than
just having to frequent it and kind of go in and do bits.
They're actually in there all day kind of what an all day.
That's probably a bit weird, butthey're in there a lot right
during their day trying to kind of get stuff done.
And from that, I'm guessing you can pull quite a bit of data
(17:19):
from, you know, from an operational standpoint or from
AI, suppose a senior standpoint,you can kind of see what your
business looks like from an event standpoint.
Absolutely, yeah. So everything in Triple C is
reportable. Every single action, any menu
items that are put in your, you have a full CRM.
So your accounts, your contacts,everything is reported.
And then we also have like an advanced reporting tool.
And that really gives you insights at a glance.
(17:41):
So it's meant to be actionable data.
A lot of times restaurant operators will pull up these
reports with all of these columns and they'll go, OK, but
So what? Like what is this supposed to
mean to me? And the advanced reporting tool
is really meant to kind of analyze it.
So a good example is our pace report.
And I'll use the festive season as an example.
So we have this quick, it runs, you know, you press on it, it's
(18:03):
already up. So it's instant report.
And what it does, it tells you how you're pacing compared to.
So for instance, you could run the report and say, I want to
know as of today, how am I piercing for Q4 for the festive
season compared to this same daylast year?
That's pretty cool. So it really helps you figure
(18:24):
out like, OK, actually we're we're behind or we're ahead or,
you know, we might need to tweaka strategy.
And it also helps you understandwhat sales managers are selling,
which ones are selling, which ones might need a little bit
more coaching. So it's really trying to take
all of that data and say, OK, but So what?
Give me some action items. Yeah.
And and with data rights of pain, because we have so much of
it now, because of all the greattech out there, we have a lot of
(18:45):
data. But actually, you're right, just
having very relevant quick data that can drive an action because
you want you to. I mean, your former OPS, you
spent your life fixing problems,right?
Lots of people just want to fix stuff and they kind of want to
know quickly where to go. That's very cool.
And these, I mean these folks are you mean we're talking about
an industry with paper thin margins.
Yeah. So giving them any sort of
insights as to where they could balance things out or adjust
(19:07):
things is very Christmas. Is really interesting because
it's all it feels like it's getting shorter every year.
When I was in operations towardsthe end of my career, when I say
shorter, that's weird. It's still the diary's the same
and the year hasn't changed. But actually it felt like
Christmas was coming later for alot of people.
And as in the consumers were using it a bit later and we were
learning and we didn't have thatdata to hand.
We just had that gut feeling. Yeah.
And the problem with operations is a lot of the time you go 90%
(19:29):
on gut, you're kind of thinking absolutely, you know, this
doesn't feel like it did last year, but to be able to sit
there actually with your boss, you're actually boss, I'm 5%
ahead as well as this time last year.
And now we know we can maintain that and go above it again.
So yeah, absolutely crucial. Triple seed in general is
extremely user focused, like very user focused, and we need
to rely on all of our teams to help us get some of that
(19:49):
feedback. So the marketing team is really
wonderful about engaging and setting up polls on social media
to get some of that feedback. What do you guys need?
Is this new feature working for you?
And then our customer success team is out on the grounds.
I mean, Katie, who's the accountmanager here in the UK, she's
out visiting customers, talking to customers, and we use all of
(20:11):
that, all of that feedback to figure out, OK, what's the road
map gonna be because you're the product.
Person, right. We're speaking to the person who
manages. I suppose you're in charge of
the road map, right? Yeah, yeah.
And I, I find it because you guys are always super
interesting to talk to because actually you're the kind of
gatekeeper that says, look, that's a great feature, but one
out of 3000 are asking for it. Exactly.
It's. Probably not ready to go yet and
and as that decision process is built then from your users
(20:33):
upwards. Absolutely.
Other research you might do. Yeah, absolutely.
So we of course, do you do research on what the industry is
doing, what events specifically are doing, what the market's
doing, what the economy's doing.All of that is important, right?
Not great right now, but we pullall of that in.
And then the product team's job is to really to, to validate it,
to sift through it and say, OK, exactly what you just said.
This is a wonderful feature request.
(20:54):
This makes a lot of sense for one out of 10,000 people.
So we're going to shelf that onefor now as opposed to the ones
that like really are getting thestrong feedback.
And like you said before, we canget that real win for the
operator or for the event manager, where, where can we?
And I think that's great. You've mentioned it about four
or five times, the actual job title, which is quite rare when
people talk about product. Actually, you've talked about
the same person 5 or 6 times saying we're going to fix it for
(21:15):
them, which I think shows real understanding of where the
product should be and where it should be going.
Obviously you're in charge of products.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
I mean, personas, right? That's such a big part of our
job. So like the event manager is one
of our personas, our main persona.
And then we also need to make sure that the chefs and the the
zoo chefs are able to login, right?
The the operators and you know, really making sure of a triple
seat is for everybody under the roof.
(21:37):
Anybody that works at the restaurant should be able.
We don't even charge for users, so we really, truly believe that
if you work at a venue that has triple C, you should have a
login. You should be able to see what's
going on. Of course, what they can do is
is limited by their user role, but we truly feel like the
entire venue should be utilizingthe tech.
It's very interesting and it's your first for a into tech,
(21:57):
right? As in from opposite you went
straight to triple C? Yeah.
So you haven't worked at any of the tech?
Companies. No, no, I've been at triple C,
almost 10. Years and I find that's super
interesting. How is how is that for you
because you've gone from hostility.
I think people will be interested to know what was it
like transitioning as technologybecause it's different.
Isn't it? Yeah.
Oh yeah. It's different place to live.
I feel very fortunate. So when I first moved over, like
I said, I was home after my twins.
And Triple C does a really greatjob of recruiting restaurant
(22:19):
people. And I was recruited to work on
the customer success team. And at first, I mean, I'll be
really honest, I was like a nineto five.
No way. I felt like a sell out.
I'm like, I don't do this. Why do?
We feel like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then I was like, you know what, I'm going to give this a
try and I really feel like I found the perfect blend.
I feel completely connected and integrated into the industry,
(22:41):
but with nights and weekends off, which is really great.
Those first six months though, I'll be honest, were tough.
It was really hard for me to adjust to like this nine to
five, kind of like life and structure.
But now. I did it for six months and I
didn't last. I'm unemployable, I think.
But but I found it hard, you know, the Slack, like living on
Slack, which was our delivery, was our communications tool.
(23:01):
And I felt just like I was struggling to kind of be with
people again, but more about my remote location.
But actually, I know a lot of people have stuck in it.
Yeah, like you who've done it and gone really far.
I do live kind of close to the corporate office, so I go to the
corporate office once or twice aweek.
And I think that saves me because you're right, I spend,
you spend so much time in Slack or a Slack company as well, so
much time in Slack and messagingand the same face to face
interaction as you do when you're actually in the, in the
(23:27):
venue and talking to the guest. But I also think triple C's
really good about encouraging usto get out there, go visit your
markets, talk to your, talk to your people.
They plan these events. We had one last night called
party people. We're in every major market.
Once a year we just throw a party and invite our users to
come. And I think it really helps us
stay grounded and connected. Our founding CEO, his his his
(23:50):
motto always, always. We're hospitality first, we're
tech second. So really keeping ingrained in
that hospitality. And it really comes across
Nikki, because when you're talking about and maybe if it's
your background, not sure what it is, but as I said, you keep
talking about the actual functions of the roles and the
product. And I often think with a lot of
people I meet in tech that sometimes it gets lost along the
way that you obviously you're some people are hyper invested,
some people aren't bootstrap, whatever it might be, but that
(24:12):
sometimes can be a distraction to what the products actually
was built for, which is to fix this problem.
And look, I mean, I can't let you leave without doing the
future question. And so you've so party pay is
here now or on its way. So party pay is here now and
it's launching in globally, it'slaunching in the UK in about two
weeks. And pre-order you're doing for
us, especially for us we're. Trying really hard to get it
before the festive season. So we'll try to get that done
(24:34):
before Christmas. Thank you.
And what else is coming up for you guys?
Anything else exciting coming upfor?
A trip, yeah. So I would say, I mean we
already touched on a little bit,but I would say AI.
So the AI integration with Adsolis an integration, but we are
also using AI in our own product.
Yeah. So right now we are in beta for
a reporting tool where you can just tell the natural language
what you want for a reporting. And then our next kind of AI
(24:54):
venture is going to be around basically an AI assistant.
So the event manager can can usethis AI agent to do kind of
those tedious tasks. Can they query when you get to a
point where they can query and Ithink within triple C their
dates are in triple C. So that is where that's where
we're going today with the reporting.
That's the goal is they can truly just, you know, what was
that? Natural language.
(25:15):
Absolutely. And run the report for them.
And then the next goal is reallyto kind of bring them like that
AI assistant to kind of move along some of those tedious
tasks. We have automations in triple
seat for sure, but it's still anautomation that the event
manager needs to own and manage.So I would say leveraging AI is
a big, a big part of our future.And then we do have a hotel
product. Yeah, we have a hotel.
(25:36):
We're doing an event called RoomService actually in November,
which is for all the hotel guys.So.
OK, yeah, yeah. So we're doing something.
It's it's, I'll explain afterwards why it's called Room
Service. But yeah, so we work with about
150 GM's who come in and kind ofhang out, so they'll be
interested to know. Oh, that's great.
Yeah. So we launched it a few years,
launched it a few years ago now,but it's really kind of getting
its traction. So we have a lot on our road map
around kind of like maturing that that hotel product.
(25:59):
And then again, we are we try tostay as agile as possible.
So really reacting in real time to what the users feedback is.
So kind of see making sure that we stay in a place where we can
continue to improve incrementally as customers tell
us kind of how their worlds are changing and what they need.
And they change rapidly at the. Moment they do.
Unfortunately, the world is an unstable place, but I think it's
(26:21):
one thing that is consistent that actually people come to
businesses, no one returns for atransaction, right?
They're returns for experience. And something I learned at Hard
Rock when I was there a long time that actually that was
always drummed into us that, youknow, even if you mess up, it
doesn't matter the experience about everything.
And I think if tech can reflect that in the product and enable
these guys to go and give that experience, then we're all
winning, right? Absolutely.
So look, I mean, I've loved meeting you.
(26:41):
It's been a pleasure to have youhere.
What is the, what is the next step?
So you've just told me before wecome in now you've got what, 72
hours here, if that? Yeah, so I flew out of Boston on
Sunday and I'm flying back on Thursday.
So it's a pretty short today. You look remarkably fresh and
happy. Thank you.
Today we're doing a lunch and then we we have an event with
add salt that we're gonna head over to and then we have a team
(27:03):
dinner tonight and then just sounds.
Terrific, Nikki, to be fair. I mean, just sounds awful.
It's lots, I know, right? Hard life here.
Yeah, I know. But lots of customer visits, we
try to, I mean Katie the accountmanager and then we have our
Director of Customer success here and myself, we've just been
trying to get as many customer and drop in visits as we can.
And are you seeing? I mean, I know it's very quick,
you've only been here like a day, but are you hearing much
(27:23):
stuff that you're surprised about in terms of feedback, not
just about the product, but about our industry over here?
Yeah, that's a great question. I wouldn't say surprised about,
but we are seeing trends in someof the feedback that we're
receiving around like what's important to them today and like
speeding up communication, making sure that we're able to
to get those pre-orders in. So I think some of.
Them feel like that's gonna stick.
Yeah, some of it has been predictable, but it's still
(27:45):
really nice to kind of when you,when you're in those visits and
let's say you visit 8 customers in a day and they all have
something that really ties together that theme that's
really validating that like, OK,we need to think about this,
this workflow or this process because it's on everybody's
mind. Yeah.
I think being in charge of products fascinating because I
think that urge or that I suppose temptation to kind of go
copying needs to fix that. We can really do something
(28:06):
interesting there. And it's an opportunity for
triple C as well, I'm sure. But then as you're having that
strength or that resilience to go, do you know what though?
Let's just plan. Yeah, it's hard, right?
You want to do. Everything you want to do.
Everything, yes. Build it all, yeah, but lovely.
Look, if people want to get holdof you or Triple C or John
actually in the UK, what's the best way to find you guys?
Is it on the website? Yeah.
So I would go to the website. You can contact the team right
from the website. We're all listed there.
(28:27):
There's, you know, we're a pretty small tight knit team,
so. Everybody knows John.
Yeah, John is. Wonderful.
I know that, yeah. Yeah, so he's our presence here
for sure. He's.
The face of Triple C. In the UK and we work directly
with with the other, there's about six or seven people in our
UK office now, so it's actually grown quite a bit.
But yeah, the website's the bestway to get a hold of us.
We love hearing from users, we love people reaching out and
(28:49):
wanting to chat. So we're always around.
OK, well we shall feedback and when pre-orders are out, we'll
give you some more feedback. Yes, yes.
Obviously we'll give you 6 weeksin advance because that's how we
like to order our food. We'll need it and I'll.
And I'm gonna need it in a spreadsheet.
No problem. We love Excel.
Look. Very nice to meet you.
Safe journey home. Enjoy the rest.
So 24 hours left. Yeah.
Where are we? Yeah.
Tomorrow, I know. How Long's the flight?
(29:10):
8 hours. So it's a 7 hour flight and a 5
hour time difference. So it's essentially if you leave
Boston at like, let's say 10:00 PM, then you land in London.
At no one call Nikki on Thursday.
Basically, yeah, I'll be, I already have my, my daughters
have a travel softball game thatnight.
So I mean, it's I'm gonna get home and just go right into
daily life. Yeah, yeah, it's this normal
(29:30):
look. Lovely to meet you.
Thank you for coming to four boss, and take care and wish.
We'll see you soon. Yeah.
Thanks for having us, really. Appreciate it, very good.
Triple Seat really empowers venues to manage all of their,
all types of events really, so all types of events that they
could do within Triple Seat and we really want to focus on the
guest experience absolute. Yeah, where you've felt an
integration with Triple Seat. Yeah.
Tell me a little bit about that,because, because we're leaning
into AI. We sure are.
I mean, everybody is. May have to get I can't go
through an episode now without mentioning them.
(00:26):
You can't. Think there's a trend of
hospitality folks realizing thatthere's another way to be in
hospitality, whether that's in tech or, or kind of just
different ways. Now.
Have you ever played the game Sims?
That's exactly what it's like. It's it's built on Unity, which
is literally a video game platform.
We don't even charge for users. So we really truly believe that
if you work at a venue that has triple seat, you should have a
(00:47):
login. You should be able to see what's
going on. So Party Day is here now and
it's launching in globally. It's launching in the UK in
about two weeks. The last trip that the triple
seat folks took here, they were also asked to pre-order
cocktails, which was like completely wild to us.
We were like a week before. How do I know what I'm gonna
drink? Welcome to the next episode of
the tick and taste podcast and say I'm delighted to be joined
all the way from Boston yes, allthe way from Boston at Nicky
(01:09):
Perry, VP of product at triple seat.
How are you I'm. Good, thanks for having me.
You're welcome, and first time in London as well.
It is, yeah. How's.
That been. It's been wonderful.
We've had some amazing dinners at customers and we've walked
around a little bit. Luckily we have a London team
here. Yes, that's like we have built
in tour. Big.
Chaperone Yeah, yeah. They've been following, showing
us around and bringing us all around.
And, and you've come on the first week we've had weather, as
(01:31):
in good weather it's. Been amazing.
It's been sunny. And I'm gonna say this is all
normal. I'm gonna say 7.
This is not fun. Yeah.
No, it's about, I think, yeah, it's probably up there.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. But all I know it's hot.
We're from Wales, so it's very hot.
Look, and we want, let's talk toyou today about product.
Obviously that's where you sit with triple C, but actually
before we get to triple C, your career was built in what we all
do right back in the industry. So tell us a little bit about
(01:53):
your journey to this point. It's interesting to know because
I think it's shaped what you're doing now.
Absolutely. I feel like it's the typical
journey, right? So I started bussing tables when
I was 13. 13's young. Yeah, you have to get working
papers. You have to get a little permit.
Yeah. So I started busing tables like
summer and school vacations whenI was young and then went into
serving, went into bartending, event managing, eventually found
(02:16):
my way into like management operations.
I was a director of OPS for a Boston based hospitality group
and I had twins and I took some time off and I wasn't really
sure how I was going to get backinto the hours and the demand of
that type of job. And luckily Triple C and I found
each other and it's been, it's been a were.
You using the product in your inyour operational job then.
(02:37):
I was, yeah. So the event managers that
worked at the the restaurant group that I worked for did use
Triple C Yeah. And that's, I'm not unique.
So a lot of people at Triple C have the same story.
And I think it really matters because we have been in those
trenches like we have been in our user's shoes.
So we most of us, I would say, Iwould say 80% of the.
(02:58):
Customers. Is it almost a deliberate
recruitment? Yeah.
For me, it was for sure. Now I think there's a trend of
hospitality folks realizing thatthere's another way to be in
hospitality, whether that's in tech or or kind of just
different ways. Now I think with technology that
allows them, I. Sort of think everyone loves the
industry, right? They want to stay connected.
But at some point, especially with me, Same for me.
I left the Hard Rock. I was at the Hard Rock for nine
(03:19):
years and I left the Hard Rock because I had shake my my oldest
now. OK, yeah.
And that was the same thing. I couldn't do the 2 in the
mornings anymore. I mean, it was different.
We like we partied. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it was, it
was, it was a lot. But then you realize actually
there's another way to connect with the industry.
So. And look for anybody who doesn't
know about Triple Seat, who haven't met John Caramey, who
wanders around London telling everybody about it, Tell us a
little bit about the product andwhat does it do just for people
(03:41):
who are hearing it for the first.
Time, yeah, absolutely. So Triple Seat really empowers
venues to manage all of their, all types of events really.
So all types of events that theycould do within Triple Seat.
And we really want to focus on the guest experience.
So we allow them to really surprise and delight their
customers with these wonderful experiences.
And we handle everything from leads all the way through to
(04:03):
creating the function sheets, all the way through to sending
thank you notes after and even prospecting, reaching out,
finding folks to rebook and making sure that you're keeping
up with your clients. We're a full CRM so we really
give them. We'd really try to be an all in
one solution for them when it comes to events.
And born out the states. So the product first born out
the States and then and you've been in London a year or maybe
(04:24):
more than that. So I would say, so we're, we
were born in the States, we're founded in the Boston area.
And then I would say what happened kind of organically was
a lot of US restaurant groups were opening up locations in
London. So we started kind of getting a
location here, a location there.And then probably about two
years I would say now we've beenreally, we have an office here
(04:48):
and we have a small team here and we've really been growing
our presence. I.
Think it's interesting. Also out of Boston was toast,
right? Yeah, did a similar journey, of
course. And when I last met John, we
were on a panel and we were talking about 2D and 3D floor
plans, which was quite, I won't say groundbreaking because the
technology's out there, but actually for this type of
product, it's really useful for the venues, right, to be able to
(05:09):
showcase what they've got. Can you tell us a little bit
about that feature because I think it's pretty cool.
Yeah, absolutely. So this feature was by
acquisition. So it was a company called
Beemerry and they have wheat now.
We it's called triple seat by floor plans by triple seat now
and it has 2D and three 3D capabilities.
And what it allows is the venueskind of build their sites.
It's so cool. The venues build out their sites
(05:31):
and then the guests are able to kind of walk through do these
fly throughs and kind of see thedesign right down to the table
like the table scape like the the silverware and the plates on
the table. Have you ever played the game
Sims yes. Do you remember that's exactly
what it's like it's it's built on Unity, which is literally a
video game platform. So it's like an entire video
(05:51):
game aspect that these users get.
And what it does, I think is that the guests show up at the
venue and it's exactly what they.
Envisioned and that's huge, right?
You know, when you're booking a party or even when you think
about a small party, right, as opposed to a huge event, you
just want to kind of feel, especially for people who are
doing weddings and stuff where they really can't second guess
what's going to happen on the day.
They want that kind of almost that reassurance before they
(06:13):
even put a pre-order in or anything.
It might be. And I think that's that just
really kind of showcases all these great venues across the
land. Absolutely.
It's a confidence builder for these.
And you're right, like the smallevents, it's still just as
important, even if you're askingthem.
Or do you want to be in this style setup?
Do you want your tables like this?
It's hard for a guest to visualize and make that
decision. But then you're talking about
(06:33):
weddings. I mean, what a cool tool for
people getting married. I mean, they literally go in and
they pick their napkin colors and they pick their
centerpieces. Yeah.
And everything just. It's amazing.
And I think for the venues as well, right, Yeah, it's pretty
because the legwork that goes into showing people around,
showing them what's going on, resetting for certain parties,
like you're saying actually you can just fix all that and you
know, record, I don't know how does it work?
They record 3 or 4 different types of setting Or can they?
(06:55):
Yeah. So they, they go through all
these different types of settings and they're just
templates in the in the floor plan software.
So they log in and they say, OK,they they picked this and this
and it video kind of generates what that what that floor plan
will look like based on what thegas picks.
And the actual problems you're solving for these guys, we
talked about one there, right? So actually the event managers
are having, you know, already you're taking away some of their
(07:16):
workload to enable them to do what they should be doing, which
is selling and making sure capacity is done.
What, where are the real kind ofpinch points for people who end
up coming to you when people come to you and say, right, we
need your help or we're looking for some kind of solution.
Is there a common use or is it quite broad?
For floor plans or triple? C Just overall triple C.
So I would say there's, I would say it is quite broad.
It is quite broad, but I would say there's a very specific
(07:37):
things one says managing their leads, they're going to have all
these inquiries and they're all coming in and they do not want
to double book and they really want to keep things organized.
So I would say managing their leads and then exactly what you
described is just saving time. They want to process, they want
triple C to really provide theirteam with a process so that that
event manager can get back to selling, back to talking to the
(07:58):
customer and not all of this kind of pen to paper.
Yeah, admin work that they've been doing.
And I think there's because there's order in there right as
well. And you take the journey from.
So pre-order is something we're developing right now.
Yeah. So right now in triple C, we go
directly from, if there's a, we call it a lead page, which is an
inquiry out here, that's on yourwebsite, that's in your social
(08:18):
media marketing. So you embed that.
Yeah, it's embedded anywhere that they can put a form, they
can put it guest fill it out comes directly to triple C.
They manage all of those leads and their goal was to convert it
over to a confirmed event. They build their function
sheets, their run of show, any document that they would need,
all communication happens. So within the platform staff
(08:41):
too. So the staff is communicating
and staff communications and theguest communication is there,
but pre-order. It's funny that you bring that
up. So that's not a thing we do in
the States. Yes.
Well we were talking about this on the pre call, weren't we
about the fact that actually there are some nuances between
what you guys do over there and what we're doing here.
But that is a thing here that. Is we need to?
Yeah. We can't cope, Nikki.
Yeah. So when we first said, oh, we
(09:02):
need pre-order, we thought that it was just selecting the menu
like the primary Booker or the contact.
And we're like, we have that, like this is how you do that.
And they were like, no, we need to know that John's coming and
that John's a vegetarian. I'm like John can't cope and as
he gets, really. Yeah.
So it's completely unique UK feature that we're building so.
Strange because we think it's normal, obviously, but you?
It's very organized. I mean, it's very organized.
(09:23):
We like a queue. We like to do everything, you
know, informal. So we just kicked it off.
It's part of a larger initiativewhere we're the guest portal is
something that is really wonderful about triple Seat.
So not only are we really servicing the venues, but we're
servicing they're guests. And we don't want the guest to
know what triple seat is. It's not our, those are not our
customers, they're our customers, customers.
So this guest portal is completely branded.
(09:45):
It looks and feels like an extension of.
Journey of your chosen venue. Yeah.
But then we have the documents there, they can message there,
they can organize things. They really get this whole
little experience in themselves and that is where we're going to
add the pre-order functionality as well.
Just yeah, just for you guys coming.
Later, maybe it's the European thing, I don't know.
Is it just? No, No, it's just this is it.
(10:06):
On the last trip, the last trip that the Triple C folks took
here, they were also asked to pre-order cocktails, which was
like, completely wild to us. We were like a week before.
How do I know what I'm gonna do?Yeah, Yeah.
We. Know what we like and we want
it. But I have to say now, so we've
been obviously done a couple group dinners since I've been
here and they're so organized and.
Timely. I do wonder if the venues have
(10:26):
driven that behaviour through betrying to be efficient
themselves before tech. And they are, yeah.
You know, trying. They are.
I mean, it's so efficient and timely.
I mean, you're going to dinner with 15 people or so.
A lot of times you feel a lag and those can take a long time.
And I feel like over here it's really second nature to the
venue, so I think there's something to be said about it.
I'm. Gonna love you yeah and you know
(10:47):
you're not and also you mentioned to me Adsalt yeah.
Where you've built an inspiration with triple C Yeah,
tell me a little bit about that because, because we're leaning
into AI are. We sure are.
I mean, everybody is. I have to get.
I can't go through an episode now without mentioning them.
You can't. You can't.
And I go back and forth with it,like, I mean, it's amazing and I
love it and it's here to stay. It's still very buzzy.
It feels very trendy at the moment, but it's not a trend.
(11:09):
It is here to stay and it is going to be a large part of our
day-to-day operations. It already is, I think for most.
Like just generally. Yeah, yeah.
So ADSOL is a really cool company.
So they use AI essentially as a host or reservationist.
So they answer the phone 24/7. So the restaurant answer, yeah,
I get the answer 24/7. I love them already.
And they can this AI bought or AI agent, I should say, can
(11:33):
handle a ton of different requests.
So yesterday we're actually at an event and they did a demo for
like a group for our customers. Can it work?
They can make a reservation. They can.
They'll ask dietary restrictions, the date, the
time, special requests. You can call.
Think about the amount of times that a restaurant has to stop
and answer the phone for things like what's your dress code?
(11:53):
Yeah. What are your hours?
Is your kitchen still open? It answers all of those things,
but with triple seats. Specifically, it handles private
dining inquiries. So if you call and say I'm
really interested in hosting a private event, it gathers all
this information. It asks me your name and what
day, what type of event, and it puts that all directly in it's.
Going to say that then populate into triple C.
Instantly the phone hang up, thephone hangs up and the leads in
(12:15):
the event manager's inbox. So yeah, it was.
It's really cool. And it and because I think
that's where great tech always use Deliverrect as an example in
the in the UK while they're all over the world now, but where
they took a problem of order injection.
People were putting orders through an iPad and they took
that away and they had several iPads moved into one.
Same for you guys here. What you're doing is that
actually the event manager's role prior to triple seat, for
(12:37):
instance, was probably, you know, I would say a 6040 split
between admin and actually selling.
And actually the reduction on admin already you can hear just
through the processing of leads through the management of leads
for the management of the actualevent is already going away.
It's quite scary at once in a good way where it can get to
right where these people will have so much time back to be
able to do their jobs properly. Are you getting that feedback
(12:57):
from the ground We. Are, and I would say that's
actually a really good call it when we started, so during
COVID, we launched triple C direct and triple C direct is
meant to cut down admin time. So a lead comes into triple C
and an event manager spends an extraordinary amount of time
taking that lead, working that lead, making it a prospect,
making it a tentative, getting it confirmed, getting all this
(13:18):
information. And we really cut that down so
that the guest can go online andkind of do the self-service
booking process. And one of the things that we
stressed was this is to save youtime.
This is in no way, shape or formto try to cut out event managers
jobs or do your job for you. It's to take the part of your
job like you're saying, that admin part, that tedious part,
(13:40):
take that and automate it a bit and then go ahead and sense give
you more time to sell it's. Like a hotel, right?
It's like occupancy the way I would if I had an event manager
work me back in the day. Well, we did it Hard Rock,
obviously. We say to them we've got
occupancy, we've got 15 buyouts,we need to sell the shits in the
budget. You need to do that.
Yeah. And the problem we had with them
is that they were doing it but then managing all the chaos that
goes around events because no one Booker is the same, right?
(14:02):
Absolutely. They're all fun to work with and
they all want their own things, which is why we do pre-orders
three years in advance in the UK.
Exactly. But yeah, it's it, it's been
really tricky I think for a longtime.
And I think part of that puzzle,as it would be because I always
talk about frustration for people waiting to order in a in
a normal dining environment and then waiting to order, waiting
to get the food and then waitingto pay.
Yeah. And pay I think is still or has
(14:24):
been an issue around people checking out when they're trying
to do these kind of things. But you guys are also fixed.
Like, you've came here and fixedeverything.
But yeah, you're also fixing that part of the puzzle, aren't
you? We are, yeah.
So like any, any place that we can kind of automate and save
those tasks we're trying to. And one of the biggest pain
points was paying. Yeah, it's manual.
And when you're in a venue in a brick and mortar, there is a way
(14:44):
for you to pay because you're there and the credit card
machine is there. With the events world, it was so
antiquated. I mean, they were either filling
out a credit card form, which you can't e-mail because that's
not compliant. You have to fax that over a
secure line, or they're calling and literally reading their card
numbers off. And it's just, it was about
managers were saying this is toomanual, this is too manual.
And I also think in 2025 as a consumer, you expect an easy way
(15:09):
to pay. So we actually launched our own
payment processing directly in Triple C, it's called Party Pay
and it is extending out here Party Pay Global.
So that way they can conveniently take payments
directly inside of Triple C And then we're actually leveraging
integration. So we have integrations
launching this summer, one with QuickBooks and then one in the
fall with 0. And that way those payments that
(15:33):
are made in Triple C automatically online easily are
now going to just go directly into their accounting system
because. Reconcile, yeah, because that's
the other thing, the reconciliation part for an FA or
ACFO, whoever is doing that or an FD, they look at me dropping
all these abbreviations, a finance person, but it's.
Different than the event manager.
I think that's what's the biggest piece is that the event
manager is like great, these convenient payments are
(15:55):
happening, but to your point, the finance people are like put
in another system like now I have to reconcile this and I
have to figure this out. So that's what the integration
is meant to help. It's it's so cool.
And I'm saying with and with allthese additions, are you seeing
like the real impact where you have that heavy usage of triple
C, which I imagine is Christmas or Mother's Day or you know, I'm
thinking of UK stuff here. But you know, where where you
get that kind of influx? Is that where you see the real
(16:16):
benefit? Or is that where you can, I
suppose, because you guys have abit of a helicopter view in it
to see the product really at itsbest around those occasions, I
suppose. Yeah, I would say for sure
festive season, Christmas seasonis one of, you know, the biggest
times for, for, for triple seat.The other thing I would say is
wedding season and summer tend to see a huge influx.
One of the things that's great about triple seed is that we
(16:37):
also have the tools to help themget the bookings kind of in
those off peak times. So like something like triple C
direct can really help you kind of get bookings on Monday
lunches, offseason where maybe you don't normally get those.
But yeah, I would say it's, it'samazingly impactful in those
really, really busy times. But event managers, I mean, they
(16:58):
live and breathe inside Triple CThey're there every day, all
day. Yeah.
I suppose, and that's I suppose for you guys, it's kind of
that's a great thing for the product, right?
Because because people are usingit to do their jobs rather than
just having to frequent it and kind of go in and do bits.
They're actually in there all day kind of what an all day.
That's probably a bit weird, butthey're in there a lot right
during their day trying to kind of get stuff done.
And from that, I'm guessing you can pull quite a bit of data
(17:19):
from, you know, from an operational standpoint or from
AI, suppose a senior standpoint,you can kind of see what your
business looks like from an event standpoint.
Absolutely, yeah. So everything in Triple C is
reportable. Every single action, any menu
items that are put in your, you have a full CRM.
So your accounts, your contacts,everything is reported.
And then we also have like an advanced reporting tool.
And that really gives you insights at a glance.
(17:41):
So it's meant to be actionable data.
A lot of times restaurant operators will pull up these
reports with all of these columns and they'll go, OK, but
So what? Like what is this supposed to
mean to me? And the advanced reporting tool
is really meant to kind of analyze it.
So a good example is our pace report.
And I'll use the festive season as an example.
So we have this quick, it runs, you know, you press on it, it's
(18:03):
already up. So it's instant report.
And what it does, it tells you how you're pacing compared to.
So for instance, you could run the report and say, I want to
know as of today, how am I piercing for Q4 for the festive
season compared to this same daylast year?
That's pretty cool. So it really helps you figure
(18:24):
out like, OK, actually we're we're behind or we're ahead or,
you know, we might need to tweaka strategy.
And it also helps you understandwhat sales managers are selling,
which ones are selling, which ones might need a little bit
more coaching. So it's really trying to take
all of that data and say, OK, but So what?
Give me some action items. Yeah.
And and with data rights of pain, because we have so much of
it now, because of all the greattech out there, we have a lot of
(18:45):
data. But actually, you're right, just
having very relevant quick data that can drive an action because
you want you to. I mean, your former OPS, you
spent your life fixing problems,right?
Lots of people just want to fix stuff and they kind of want to
know quickly where to go. That's very cool.
And these, I mean these folks are you mean we're talking about
an industry with paper thin margins.
Yeah. So giving them any sort of
insights as to where they could balance things out or adjust
(19:07):
things is very Christmas. Is really interesting because
it's all it feels like it's getting shorter every year.
When I was in operations towardsthe end of my career, when I say
shorter, that's weird. It's still the diary's the same
and the year hasn't changed. But actually it felt like
Christmas was coming later for alot of people.
And as in the consumers were using it a bit later and we were
learning and we didn't have thatdata to hand.
We just had that gut feeling. Yeah.
And the problem with operations is a lot of the time you go 90%
(19:29):
on gut, you're kind of thinking absolutely, you know, this
doesn't feel like it did last year, but to be able to sit
there actually with your boss, you're actually boss, I'm 5%
ahead as well as this time last year.
And now we know we can maintain that and go above it again.
So yeah, absolutely crucial. Triple seed in general is
extremely user focused, like very user focused, and we need
to rely on all of our teams to help us get some of that
(19:49):
feedback. So the marketing team is really
wonderful about engaging and setting up polls on social media
to get some of that feedback. What do you guys need?
Is this new feature working for you?
And then our customer success team is out on the grounds.
I mean, Katie, who's the accountmanager here in the UK, she's
out visiting customers, talking to customers, and we use all of
(20:11):
that, all of that feedback to figure out, OK, what's the road
map gonna be because you're the product.
Person, right. We're speaking to the person who
manages. I suppose you're in charge of
the road map, right? Yeah, yeah.
And I, I find it because you guys are always super
interesting to talk to because actually you're the kind of
gatekeeper that says, look, that's a great feature, but one
out of 3000 are asking for it. Exactly.
It's. Probably not ready to go yet and
and as that decision process is built then from your users
(20:33):
upwards. Absolutely.
Other research you might do. Yeah, absolutely.
So we of course, do you do research on what the industry is
doing, what events specifically are doing, what the market's
doing, what the economy's doing.All of that is important, right?
Not great right now, but we pullall of that in.
And then the product team's job is to really to, to validate it,
to sift through it and say, OK, exactly what you just said.
This is a wonderful feature request.
(20:54):
This makes a lot of sense for one out of 10,000 people.
So we're going to shelf that onefor now as opposed to the ones
that like really are getting thestrong feedback.
And like you said before, we canget that real win for the
operator or for the event manager, where, where can we?
And I think that's great. You've mentioned it about four
or five times, the actual job title, which is quite rare when
people talk about product. Actually, you've talked about
the same person 5 or 6 times saying we're going to fix it for
(21:15):
them, which I think shows real understanding of where the
product should be and where it should be going.
Obviously you're in charge of products.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
I mean, personas, right? That's such a big part of our
job. So like the event manager is one
of our personas, our main persona.
And then we also need to make sure that the chefs and the the
zoo chefs are able to login, right?
The the operators and you know, really making sure of a triple
seat is for everybody under the roof.
(21:37):
Anybody that works at the restaurant should be able.
We don't even charge for users, so we really, truly believe that
if you work at a venue that has triple C, you should have a
login. You should be able to see what's
going on. Of course, what they can do is
is limited by their user role, but we truly feel like the
entire venue should be utilizingthe tech.
It's very interesting and it's your first for a into tech,
(21:57):
right? As in from opposite you went
straight to triple C? Yeah.
So you haven't worked at any of the tech?
Companies. No, no, I've been at triple C,
almost 10. Years and I find that's super
interesting. How is how is that for you
because you've gone from hostility.
I think people will be interested to know what was it
like transitioning as technologybecause it's different.
Isn't it? Yeah.
Oh yeah. It's different place to live.
I feel very fortunate. So when I first moved over, like
I said, I was home after my twins.
And Triple C does a really greatjob of recruiting restaurant
(22:19):
people. And I was recruited to work on
the customer success team. And at first, I mean, I'll be
really honest, I was like a nineto five.
No way. I felt like a sell out.
I'm like, I don't do this. Why do?
We feel like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then I was like, you know what, I'm going to give this a
try and I really feel like I found the perfect blend.
I feel completely connected and integrated into the industry,
(22:41):
but with nights and weekends off, which is really great.
Those first six months though, I'll be honest, were tough.
It was really hard for me to adjust to like this nine to
five, kind of like life and structure.
But now. I did it for six months and I
didn't last. I'm unemployable, I think.
But but I found it hard, you know, the Slack, like living on
Slack, which was our delivery, was our communications tool.
(23:01):
And I felt just like I was struggling to kind of be with
people again, but more about my remote location.
But actually, I know a lot of people have stuck in it.
Yeah, like you who've done it and gone really far.
I do live kind of close to the corporate office, so I go to the
corporate office once or twice aweek.
And I think that saves me because you're right, I spend,
you spend so much time in Slack or a Slack company as well, so
much time in Slack and messagingand the same face to face
interaction as you do when you're actually in the, in the
(23:27):
venue and talking to the guest. But I also think triple C's
really good about encouraging usto get out there, go visit your
markets, talk to your, talk to your people.
They plan these events. We had one last night called
party people. We're in every major market.
Once a year we just throw a party and invite our users to
come. And I think it really helps us
stay grounded and connected. Our founding CEO, his his his
(23:50):
motto always, always. We're hospitality first, we're
tech second. So really keeping ingrained in
that hospitality. And it really comes across
Nikki, because when you're talking about and maybe if it's
your background, not sure what it is, but as I said, you keep
talking about the actual functions of the roles and the
product. And I often think with a lot of
people I meet in tech that sometimes it gets lost along the
way that you obviously you're some people are hyper invested,
some people aren't bootstrap, whatever it might be, but that
(24:12):
sometimes can be a distraction to what the products actually
was built for, which is to fix this problem.
And look, I mean, I can't let you leave without doing the
future question. And so you've so party pay is
here now or on its way. So party pay is here now and
it's launching in globally, it'slaunching in the UK in about two
weeks. And pre-order you're doing for
us, especially for us we're. Trying really hard to get it
before the festive season. So we'll try to get that done
(24:34):
before Christmas. Thank you.
And what else is coming up for you guys?
Anything else exciting coming upfor?
A trip, yeah. So I would say, I mean we
already touched on a little bit,but I would say AI.
So the AI integration with Adsolis an integration, but we are
also using AI in our own product.
Yeah. So right now we are in beta for
a reporting tool where you can just tell the natural language
what you want for a reporting. And then our next kind of AI
(24:54):
venture is going to be around basically an AI assistant.
So the event manager can can usethis AI agent to do kind of
those tedious tasks. Can they query when you get to a
point where they can query and Ithink within triple C their
dates are in triple C. So that is where that's where
we're going today with the reporting.
That's the goal is they can truly just, you know, what was
that? Natural language.
(25:15):
Absolutely. And run the report for them.
And then the next goal is reallyto kind of bring them like that
AI assistant to kind of move along some of those tedious
tasks. We have automations in triple
seat for sure, but it's still anautomation that the event
manager needs to own and manage.So I would say leveraging AI is
a big, a big part of our future.And then we do have a hotel
product. Yeah, we have a hotel.
(25:36):
We're doing an event called RoomService actually in November,
which is for all the hotel guys.So.
OK, yeah, yeah. So we're doing something.
It's it's, I'll explain afterwards why it's called Room
Service. But yeah, so we work with about
150 GM's who come in and kind ofhang out, so they'll be
interested to know. Oh, that's great.
Yeah. So we launched it a few years,
launched it a few years ago now,but it's really kind of getting
its traction. So we have a lot on our road map
around kind of like maturing that that hotel product.
(25:59):
And then again, we are we try tostay as agile as possible.
So really reacting in real time to what the users feedback is.
So kind of see making sure that we stay in a place where we can
continue to improve incrementally as customers tell
us kind of how their worlds are changing and what they need.
And they change rapidly at the. Moment they do.
Unfortunately, the world is an unstable place, but I think it's
(26:21):
one thing that is consistent that actually people come to
businesses, no one returns for atransaction, right?
They're returns for experience. And something I learned at Hard
Rock when I was there a long time that actually that was
always drummed into us that, youknow, even if you mess up, it
doesn't matter the experience about everything.
And I think if tech can reflect that in the product and enable
these guys to go and give that experience, then we're all
winning, right? Absolutely.
So look, I mean, I've loved meeting you.
(26:41):
It's been a pleasure to have youhere.
What is the, what is the next step?
So you've just told me before wecome in now you've got what, 72
hours here, if that? Yeah, so I flew out of Boston on
Sunday and I'm flying back on Thursday.
So it's a pretty short today. You look remarkably fresh and
happy. Thank you.
Today we're doing a lunch and then we we have an event with
add salt that we're gonna head over to and then we have a team
(27:03):
dinner tonight and then just sounds.
Terrific, Nikki, to be fair. I mean, just sounds awful.
It's lots, I know, right? Hard life here.
Yeah, I know. But lots of customer visits, we
try to, I mean Katie the accountmanager and then we have our
Director of Customer success here and myself, we've just been
trying to get as many customer and drop in visits as we can.
And are you seeing? I mean, I know it's very quick,
you've only been here like a day, but are you hearing much
(27:23):
stuff that you're surprised about in terms of feedback, not
just about the product, but about our industry over here?
Yeah, that's a great question. I wouldn't say surprised about,
but we are seeing trends in someof the feedback that we're
receiving around like what's important to them today and like
speeding up communication, making sure that we're able to
to get those pre-orders in. So I think some of.
Them feel like that's gonna stick.
Yeah, some of it has been predictable, but it's still
(27:45):
really nice to kind of when you,when you're in those visits and
let's say you visit 8 customers in a day and they all have
something that really ties together that theme that's
really validating that like, OK,we need to think about this,
this workflow or this process because it's on everybody's
mind. Yeah.
I think being in charge of products fascinating because I
think that urge or that I suppose temptation to kind of go
copying needs to fix that. We can really do something
(28:06):
interesting there. And it's an opportunity for
triple C as well, I'm sure. But then as you're having that
strength or that resilience to go, do you know what though?
Let's just plan. Yeah, it's hard, right?
You want to do. Everything you want to do.
Everything, yes. Build it all, yeah, but lovely.
Look, if people want to get holdof you or Triple C or John
actually in the UK, what's the best way to find you guys?
Is it on the website? Yeah.
So I would go to the website. You can contact the team right
from the website. We're all listed there.
(28:27):
There's, you know, we're a pretty small tight knit team,
so. Everybody knows John.
Yeah, John is. Wonderful.
I know that, yeah. Yeah, so he's our presence here
for sure. He's.
The face of Triple C. In the UK and we work directly
with with the other, there's about six or seven people in our
UK office now, so it's actually grown quite a bit.
But yeah, the website's the bestway to get a hold of us.
We love hearing from users, we love people reaching out and
(28:49):
wanting to chat. So we're always around.
OK, well we shall feedback and when pre-orders are out, we'll
give you some more feedback. Yes, yes.
Obviously we'll give you 6 weeksin advance because that's how we
like to order our food. We'll need it and I'll.
And I'm gonna need it in a spreadsheet.
No problem. We love Excel.
Look. Very nice to meet you.
Safe journey home. Enjoy the rest.
So 24 hours left. Yeah.
Where are we? Yeah.
Tomorrow, I know. How Long's the flight?
(29:10):
8 hours. So it's a 7 hour flight and a 5
hour time difference. So it's essentially if you leave
Boston at like, let's say 10:00 PM, then you land in London.
At no one call Nikki on Thursday.
Basically, yeah, I'll be, I already have my, my daughters
have a travel softball game thatnight.
So I mean, it's I'm gonna get home and just go right into
daily life. Yeah, yeah, it's this normal
(29:30):
look. Lovely to meet you.
Thank you for coming to four boss, and take care and wish.
We'll see you soon. Yeah.
Thanks for having us, really. Appreciate it, very good.
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