September 16, 2025 • 27 mins
Chris chats with James Fahy, co-founder of JustTip, about building a tipping and tronc platform straight out of school, the UK’s evolving tipping legislation, and why faster, more transparent payouts matter for teams.
James shares what he’s learnt as a first-time founder, how operators can save £5–6k per year through compliant tronc schemes with no NIC for businesses or staff (as discussed), and why partnerships now beat cold calls.
We also touch on weekly “JustTip Tuesdays”, EU expansion, and practical AI use across support and outbound sales.
Thanks to our friends at Lightspeed — the point-of-sale and payments platform helping restaurants run smoother during peak season.
James Fahy — Co-founder, JustTip
Web: justtip.net / justtip.co.uk
Origin story: a coffee-shop moment that sparked JustTip at age 19
What JustTip does (the “CAT” pitch): Compliance, Automation of payouts, and Tax savings
Tronc clarity: paying tips correctly so no NIC for business or staff (as discussed)
Weekly payouts and transparency for teams (“JustTip Tuesdays”)
UK vs Ireland: legislation, grey areas, and why big brands move first
Cost pressures: using tronc compliance to unlock savings and time back
Holiday pay, agencies, and the realities of complex staffing models
From cold calls to partnerships and integrations (scaling the lean way)
EU growth and embedded tipping with merchant services partners
Sane AI adoption: repeat-issue support bots and smarter outbound — without losing the human touch
Founder lessons: impatience, resilience, and being the final line of defence as CEO
Transparency + speed = trust. Weekly, predictable tip payouts boost morale and word-of-mouth.
Compliance can save real money. Correct tronc flows can mean £5–6k annual savings for a typical site (as discussed).
Legislation is tightening. UK requirements (e.g., paying collected tips into staff accounts within a month) are pushing operators to formalise tronc and record-keeping.
Partnerships scale better. Integrations and ISO/VAR channels beat one-by-one selling once the product fits.
AI helps with the boring bits. Use it for repeat support and structured outbound — keep people for nuanced, emotional interactions.
Founder reality. Titles mean little; being there “when it goes wrong” is what wins and keeps customers.
“They don’t care about the product — it’s, are you going to be there when it goes wrong?”
“JustTip Tuesdays became a thing — like a mini payroll each week.”
“If you push tips correctly through a tronc scheme, the business pays no NIC and the employee pays no NIC.”
“I got one of the lowest grades in entrepreneurship — then learnt it all on the job.”
Intro & sponsor
James’s backstory and the coffee-shop spark
What JustTip does (CAT: Compliance, Automation, Tax)
UK/Ireland legislation & tronc reality
Weekly payouts, team impact & transparency
Cost savings, holiday pay & agency complexity
Scaling: partnerships, integrations, embedded tipping
Practical AI in support and sales
Founder lessons & what’s next
JustTip — justtip.net / justtip.co.uk
Slush (Helsinki) — tech conference referenced by James
Connect with James Fahy via the JustTip website.
If you’re an operator reviewing tipping and tronc, map your current flow and payout cadence — then compare the potential NIC and admin savings from a compliant scheme.
Subscribe to Tech on Toast for more operator-first, tech-that-works conversations.
Host: Chris Fletcher
Guest: James Fahy, Co-founder at JustTip
Producer: Tech on Toast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Welcome to the Tekntos podcast. We are the home of hostility
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I presume you just didn't wake up, leave school and start just
tip or did you? Yeah, actually I wanted to leave
a tip and it just hit me like, well, I never really trust it's
going to the staff and I'm kind of like, well, someone's got to
put this together. If you push your tips correctly
(01:06):
through a trunk system, like just tip, the business pays no
nick and the employee pays no nick.
So just for contact, I got the one of the lowest grades in my
class in entrepreneurship. It's how similar stories of
people been able to pay a bill they just couldn't get.
To I've learned they don't care about the sale, they don't care
about the product. It's.
Are you going to be there when it goes wrong?
That's actually what it means bythe way, CEO and all that means
nothing apart from the fact you're the guys.
There's nobody above you. Yeah, that's a starter really on
(01:29):
straight out of secondary schooland before even went to college.
You work hard for your money. You want to make sure it goes to
the staff, Will. Evidently that's what we make
sure that happens. We should see, you know, at
least 5-6 K saved for the average business a year.
That was like emotion. I was like, OK, I'm actually
kind of doing something here that is helping people.
Welcome to the next episode of Tech of Toast Podcast.
Today I'm delighted to be joinedby James Fahey, Co founder of
Just Tip. Is that right?
(01:50):
Did I get that right? Just about, yeah.
Fahi Fahi, how are you mate? Good.
Welcome to Borbos. Yeah, we're both tied.
It's the end of the day, isn't it?
We'll do our best to entertain you for the next 20 minutes.
But at least you're an Irish manat a scouter, yeah?
Yeah, you can't. I'm talking the energy is high
or the probably in our minds we're quite tired.
Look, anyway, so are you. You're not pacing London.
Are you travelling up and backwards and forwards or?
(02:10):
Co Founders Secure is based here.
I'm over and back. I'm moving over at the end of
the year. Oh, you really?
Yeah. Let's get to that stage of my
life now. OK, Start paying rent.
Tell us a little bit about your tell us a little bit about how
you got to this point, because Ipresume you just didn't wake up,
leave school and start just tip or did you?
Yeah, this all started back whenI was, I was 19/18/19.
(02:32):
I was in a coffee shop. I wanted to leave a tip and it
just hit me like, well, I never really trust it's going to the
staff and I'm kind of like, well, someone's got to put this
together. So December 2020, we started to
to piece together this. Myself and Kira carried work in
hospitality. I've done some stints and
construction summaries and whatever else.
But literally it was as simple as that.
Started to put together idea andthen it just rolled in something
(02:52):
that is today. So it's come with challenges,
smoke and smoke and mirrors. It's probably a big thing.
But yeah, that was it to start areally young straight out of
secondary school before I even went to college.
That's mental, yeah. And the learning must be like on
a steep curve then, because I was just talking about my,
because you're nearly as young as my son.
So my, I was talking about my son going to his first year as
(03:13):
uni, Right. But the learning curve that
you're going on must be pretty huge.
Yeah, it was always interesting because we were just saying
that. So I finished uni last year,
Kira finished this year and I, yeah, I'll be in lectures and
they'll be talking about this that later.
I'm like, no, that's not true. Like they're just for context.
I got the one of the lowest grades in my class in
entrepreneurship in my course. It just shows kids don't stay in
(03:36):
school. Yeah.
Or do if you're if you've got brains.
Never. It's true, isn't it?
Because I, I think often with business you, you, you learn on
the job, right? It's very hard to learn out.
But I mean some stuff you can learn I suppose.
Systems and structure. There's the baseline there,
yeah. But it's, it's it's when you
start dealing with shareholders,customers, stakeholders and
then, yeah, it becomes an interesting old journey.
(03:56):
You know, you never it's not a linear line 100%, especially
when you start as a first time founder.
If I was a second time founder or hopefully when I'm a second
time founder, it's it should be a bit more streamlined, but I'm.
Sure, a bug of you. You're he's already sold.
This is on the next. One.
No, no, not yet. Tell us.
Tell us that so people don't know you don't know the product.
Tell us what the product does isyour best pitch.
(04:16):
Yes, of course. So from a consumer point of
view, yeah, we make sure any tipthat's left or service charge in
a restaurant, hotel or coffee shop goes directly to the staff.
From a business point of view, we do three things.
So I wanted to make it really simple because when you're doing
a cold call and I'd love a good cold call, especially like how
you can't say the words that people tell me uncalled calls at
the end of the book on this. But we, we broke it down into 3
(04:37):
core letters CAT compliance withcompliance with legislation,
automation of payouts and tax savings.
So we ensure a complete compliance for any tact tipping
laws across the EU and the UK. We pay each individual employee
to remove about a day's work at least a month for the business.
And then I guess because tips are going through our trunk
scheme and whatever else, there's quite a considerable tax
(04:58):
saving for the business. So we should see, you know, at
least 5-6 K saved for the average business a year.
And the legislation was early inIreland, right?
You you guys went before? Us.
Oh, we're brilliant in Ireland, yeah.
Yeah. Because you're better at the tax
over here, I have to say. Yeah, mostly collecting tax,
yeah. That's how my accountant that
was, I presume then you had it gave you a bit of a leg up
(05:20):
understanding what you were doing over in Ireland before you
came over here. Are we already here?
Yeah, yeah, we were here already.
But I think the legislation, Ireland, it's definitely not as
stringent as the UK, right. It was like a warm up.
So, you know, we had the head start.
It was great. I think when the when the
changes came in here, there was just chaos.
I know, I know the other providers that do what we do as
well. And I think we all just wanted
to search for clarity. Is there clarity here today?
(05:44):
Maybe. There's definitely, there's
definitely Gray areas, but I guess people are just getting on
with it now. Businesses are required to push
tips directly to staff and make sure it's transparent and OK.
As a consumer, you work hard foryour money, you want to make
sure it goes to the staff. Well, evidently that's what we
make sure that happens. So it makes sense.
Legislation, it was always goingto be an interesting one when,
(06:05):
you know, brown envelopes was a thing for many, many, many years
and I guess. Back in my day mate, there's
lots of brown envelopes. But that's it.
But then as an employee, you don't know what you're getting.
As a consumer, you know, we weretalking about accountants.
We work hard for our money. You want to make sure you're
leaving the tip for the staff. And look, there's so many decent
employers out there. It's just the one or two that
that don't do the wrong thing. Maybe once it's like.
Schooling IT11 bad person ruins it for everyone.
(06:26):
Exactly. So yeah.
And do you remember the first time you must?
How old were you? The first tip went through
first. Just tip. 15th of July 2020. 15.
15th of July 2021 OK, our first customer Lemon Crap was a crap
shop in Dublin. I'll never forget it Like it was
just it was my life got so much worse after it.
(06:47):
No, no, because. You have 3 lemon craps or.
Oh yeah. Nothing funny.
That sounds like a niche business.
It was. It was.
It was definitely memorable. Now the business has just
changed completely since then. And how many of you?
Because I guess you don't need to be like a massively
overstaffed tech company. No, it's quite lean, right?
I think like the whole thing hasbeen a complete learning curve.
I think we've gone from a directsales approach to just like
(07:10):
bashing out cold calls to partnerships and integrations
and Isos and via relationships and all that kind of stuff.
So yeah, I think we've had a change over the last couple
years. My shareholders are really
enjoying the learning curve. It's probably growing up though,
isn't it? Like almost like because it is
because your initial want to go to market is like, I'm going to
go sell my product, right? Yeah, yeah, whatever it takes,
I'm going to go sell it. And then all of a sudden you're
(07:32):
like, God, this is a bit inefficient or we're not
getting. The success we want someone
comes to you and goes, hey, I'vegot X sites, you know, 100
sites. We'd love to take your solution
there. Kind of going hold on.
I've been trying to get there for the last while and you rub
it anyway. But yeah, no, I think it's a bit
of that also when you're young, you know, my mother can
definitely agree with this. I'm an impatient human being, so
I yeah, yeah, of course. So I just had to do it.
(07:53):
And it's like that logic. I was touched the stove figure
out it was hot rather than beingtold it was warm and hot or
whatever else. So, yeah, now a couple of years
of of heavy learning. Now we are still learning, but
in a better light and, and. You mentioned that the partners
in the space weren't going to a job, but I'm guessing I, I find
that in the categories when you've got some more forge in
the way or someone kind of knocking down doors doing it, it
(08:15):
just greases the wheels for everyone, right.
And it gives you the opportunityto catch up or overtake as it
would be. So has that helped you guys
having the other guys kind of kind of move that market
forward? And it's particularly in terms
of awareness, I suppose. Yeah, yeah, sure.
I think that the initial people that were in markets, your
normal car providers did pave the way tipping.
It's so funny, Evan goes. I don't tip, but like tipping.
(08:36):
Service charges are classified as tips under legislation in the
UK, like the UK. You guys love service charges
comparison. Ireland.
Oh really? Yeah.
I was like getting a coffee withmy chairman about maybe a month
ago and I went to the coffee shop, I ordered the coffee, I
collect it and I paid 12 1/2% service charges.
And like, I'm a tipper. I always want to leave a tip for
people but it's it's become nearly mandatory like.
(08:57):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously in the US it's
it is. Well, it's not.
It is, but it's people's salary.Right.
The stories I get. Oh yeah, we were in a restaurant
and I only left a 10% tip and they ran out asking me, you know
what was wrong? Why didn't you leave me 30%?
We get that the whole time. But yeah, come back to point
people have to pave the way. Yeah, tipping is a is an
interesting one. Well, I do love about tipping in
the UK. Is the word trunk From what I
(09:18):
got, I've learned is that poor box in French.
It's just all this stuff. It's so.
Funny, trunk has been the most mystifying thing, even if you
work in. I was in operations for 25
years, Right? And trunk was always a thing
that we used to hear, but no onereally cared unless you were the
trunk master. Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, the last year I've heard the word more trunk more
than I care to remember. But you know, it's something
that people need to educate and run and it's, and it's obviously
(09:40):
helping or it should help the kids who work.
It's the biggest tax break ever.Yeah, like if you push your tips
correctly through a trunk system, like just tip, the
business pays no nick and the employee pays no nick.
So imagine getting your paycheckat the end of the month with no
nick on it. Yeah.
Happy days. What's happening isn't it?
And, and we are a very people driven, you know, it's always
(10:00):
been about people in our industry.
I suppose what's, what's the best feedback you're having from
like not just from your, the people who signed the cheque and
and work with you guys, but the guys on the ground who are kind
of being impacted. Like overarching is always
positive. I always have the negative
stuff. I love figuring out what's going
on. Like, why didn't you like it?
And like, I think the biggest positivity piece we found is 1
(10:21):
is transparency, but two, it's money in the pockets quicker.
So like in the UK previously your pet, you're waiting 10
weeks for your, your funds to hit or whatever was usually was
once a quarter. The legislation now says you've
got to make sure the tips are pushed to your staff bank
account within a month of collecting it.
So collected on today must be intheir accounts by next month.
We do it once a week. Like so it's, it's it's.
(10:41):
But again, it's that impatience,right?
And I think the generation that you're serving, if they've grown
up, the iPhone in the hand, they, they kind of like you just
said, you expect things quick. So I was in a coffee shop in
Dublin and the the staff coined this and I'm not trying to coin
it, but it was like just tip Tuesdays because we used to pay
on Cheers, never Wednesday. But it was like there was like,
Oh yeah, we love just tip because it's they know that's
the day. It's like payroll and they get
(11:03):
many little payroll each month or each week.
And that's makes sense. I mean, that's like viral,
right? Because that's where people
start talking. When you start being quoted or,
you know, used as a an actual phrase, it's insane because you
know you've landed right. It makes you a bit sticky.
I remember that because we've had a couple of tough years and
had to take a lot of learning. That was like, after a very,
very poor week for me, as a verytough week, really that was like
emotion. I was like, OK, I'm actually
(11:24):
kind of doing something here that is helping people.
Yeah. Do you know when you're like,
like, so you're the CEO of a company self-proclaimed and my
dad, just to make sure that's the CEO.
Whatever you want to call me. But it's you just everyone gets
escalated to you. You're the last line of defense.
Yeah. And I was just there like.
That's actually what it means bythe way, CEO and all that means
nothing apart from the fact you're the guys.
There's nobody above you. Yeah, but like that?
(11:45):
No. One's going to save.
You that moment when they're like, you know, just tip
Tuesdays. I was like, OK, Jesus, this is
actually something I'm kind of doing right here.
That's a great I've never heard that before as that analogy of,
you know, people using like that, because you talk to some
of the early access to wages guys to wage stream these kind
of people and they tell similar stories of people being able to
pay a bill they just couldn't get to.
And I think that's especially inthis particular industry,
(12:06):
because people, you know, it's not the best, as we all know,
it's not the best paid industry in the world.
And and I know all the brands are trying hard to fix that, but
it is tough, Ryan, to be able toaccess your cash, it is their
money and be able to get it quick is is absolutely crucial.
Get it quick and then have that same feeling in your stomach are
kind of going you know what thatactually makes sense why I got
that Yeah. So like Kira went that Yeah.
But when Kira worked in a in a restaurant previously before we
(12:28):
started just tip like there was complete.
It was you know how how was thistip split?
Who knows whatever spell was used this week like it was we
used. To put them on the table and
spray. It was like shuffling cards.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, it just brings that
level of transparency. So that's the very biased
opinion of. No, no, but, but no, but we know
it's happening because because I've heard it similar stories,
(12:50):
right, that I know it's happening.
So it's great. And what about there must
because we're year on in the UK.Well, not nearly a year on a.
Year. Was it a year?
October. Yeah, yeah.
So there you go. It's close.
A year on from the tipping legislation in the UK, what kind
of trends are we? Are we seeing anything different
in the market? Is there anything interesting
happening or is it as you expected?
I think it is nearly exactly thesame as Ireland.
Really. The bigger brands are always one
(13:11):
step ahead. They they are more worried about
the big PR follow or yeah. And that that makes complete
sense. Honestly.
Small brands either tell me theydon't care or they'll figure it
out as it comes along. Really.
And exactly how it happened in Ireland.
People say the same thing to me and there was like 500 fines in
the first year in Ireland because of the fine based system
(13:31):
matter and tribunal background. Yeah.
And then people started to pick up the phone.
And so it's generally like between kind of you get the
first first mover straight away,the second movers are the ones
probably 6 to 12 months after. And like we're starting to see
it. So the tribunals and the
different pieces have come out in the last couple of weeks,
which you've probably seen different brands getting, you
know, in different situations. It's leading people to kind of
(13:53):
go, oh. No.
And is that influencing the conversations then when you guys
are going into sell or to, you know, to make people aware of
the product, are you finding that the legislation is pretty
much the leading part of the conversation now compared to I
suppose prior to that when therewas more about just do the right
thing I. Don't think it was ever really
do the right thing. I think it was always about cost
saving or. Like, I mean, I just live in, I
live in a Yeah, yeah. As consumers, we want to do the
(14:14):
right thing because it's it's our money.
But the business just want to get the money to the staff.
And that's the. So I think the other side to
this is the cost saving. You know, businesses are
squeezed. What's the article coming out?
25% of staff have been let go already.
Yeah, these are mega numbers 80.2000 jobs I think or something I
heard. And it's just graceful.
Yeah. This industry props up watches,
you know, people my age. Yeah, our age.
(14:35):
I wish man. But it's fun.
This is an industry propping up what is probably one of the most
overlooked under supported people in the world.
And they continue to have to cutjobs where the job?
Yeah, it's. Frightening.
I mean, it's never and I becauseI've been in for so long, I've
never, I don't think I've ever seen apart from the pandemic,
which was obviously brutal and quick, I've never seen anything.
(14:57):
It feels at the moment like it'son a real tipping point.
There's a bit. There's a, there's a bubble.
I think it's something fun here.You don't.
Know it's a definite, there's a definite change and some are
thriving and doing really well, but you there's a lot, as you
say, who are in that place wherecosts are too hard to bear.
But that's the benefit of us. Then you come in, you say to
them, right, how much you're pushing through service and
tips. In a month they go £1000, right?
(15:18):
You're paying 150, just so you know, they're paying £150 a
month from £1000. Let's get you some savings
there. Yeah.
So in that case we'll come in £8090.00 and and they're going
to have an upside plus we both on the legislation.
So it depends who comes in, how they speak to us.
If it's about legislation, we'regoing to take that box of them
and give them savings, yeah. If it's vice versa, yeah, we're
going to help them either way and also save them.
A bit, I'm guessing normally, right, If you're door stepping
(15:39):
someone, if you're cold calling or if you're kind of bumping
into people, I'm guessing you doleave the saving, right, Because
you know, it's it's that's what I want to hear.
If I own a restaurant or I own abusiness, of course, what are
you going to do for me? Most of our most operators know,
but it's legislation there. It's it is like it's much worse
over here than it is back home. Much worse in terms.
Of the severity of what happenedto your business.
(15:59):
And I think we're starting to see all these tribunals feed
through now. And evidently, you know, there's
one, there's met, there's plentygoing to appeal now.
And once they go through appeal and they probably won't get
through, it becomes law, which means now there's more laws on
top of it. So like holiday pay is a huge
piece now. And how is Holiday going to be
tracked around Trunk if it's going through the business?
(16:19):
It's so it's. I find that stuff so complex,
right? And hasn't been touched.
For years. Maternity, I mean, I include
maternity and all this kind of stuff as well.
It becomes, and not just in the way we understand it legally,
but just with tech as well. It's been really hard.
I mean, I changed rotor system 3or 4 times over the years just
because they couldn't track the holder pay properly.
We kept getting dummy numbers. Like we, we're working with a
(16:40):
crowd at the moment, have about 1000 staff to try and get that
contract done. They have, they have like 4 or
500 agency staff, right? So like, I mean, what agencies
now? And agencies are having a
massive issue because they can'trun a trunk scheme in the sense
that they're seen as the employer.
So it's like there's another agency that we spoke to and they
have 5000 staff on it and they're kind of going, these
(17:02):
people can't do anything but push National Insurance on it
and then push it back onto the customer.
So yeah, tips is is definitely aminefield and service charges.
It's mad and and you've done Howold are you now?
Sorry I didn't 24 so 24. Feel like I'm about 44.
So you'll get there mate. So it's good fun on the way, but
I. Don't want to get there?
Let's just slow down. For a minute, the next 20 years
is great, but like scaling a company because you are now
(17:24):
you're you're scaled. And I don't mean mean in terms a
lot of people think scaling means loads of loads of
employees. It doesn't, it actually means in
terms of growth right business and having a run rate that
people think is attractive to buy you.
That must be, we talked about the learning for it before, but
do you see that traction? Is it, is it you mentioned very
quickly, is it driving you to think what else can I do?
Yeah, It's been such a differentmarket.
(17:46):
When we started this during the bull market back in 20/21/22,
people were just throwing money to the company.
And now it's it's completely different model.
It's gross profit margin, how quickly to profitability, how
much basically how much cash do I have to give you until you can
stop asking me for cash. So, yeah, we've had a really,
really good start to the year. You know, we've we're going to
do hundreds of percent growth this year going into next year.
(18:10):
Yeah, we're starting to figure out, you know, there's lots of
money flowing through the business now as well and we're
helping staff whatever. Else is it like a hoggy stick
approach in the way that you're going to see that?
It was like this to start with and it went down.
Now it's like this. Broken hoggy stick.
Like honestly, starting this thing so you're so young.
I've taken a lot of learning. I don't think it's your age.
I mean, obviously your age has an impact at some point, but I
actually think that a lot of first time founders will go
(18:32):
through that crap anyway just because it's a new business,
right? You're anything along the way?
I did not think that was going to happen.
Yeah. Or you didn't think you'd meet
that person who would just yeah,there's some very bad people out
there. Yeah, I'm sure there's something
and they will take advantage of you all day long, right,
Regardless of age, doesn't. Matter as a first time founder.
And again, I'm yet to figure outwhat a second time founder feels
like. But you're so.
The same but older you're. Just starting to feel more
(18:53):
optimistic. You're kind of going, oh, yeah,
you can definitely bring me to the US, Yeah.
So that you have the significantamount of naivety.
Yeah, I would say yeah. That kind of judgement.
And and that and people get excited about that kind of stuff
as well, right, if you're looking for opportunities.
Well, it takes somebody is just to go along and go, yeah, it's
20 grand to this and you're going to go, OK, let's get the
money into your accountant. So yeah, I know.
It's like, that's life. Yeah.
(19:13):
But it is what it is. And is there, what does it look
like going down the road then? So if you're looking forward to
the product and what you can, isthere much more you can do with
the product you mentioned there you're talking about holiday
pay? Yeah, yeah.
So we've got some really cool competitors in the market and
again, you can only just enjoy what they're doing and figure
out how it could become better because that's all it's about.
It's a healthy, competitive you're.
Like swimming behind the sharks,right?
(19:34):
Going yeah, I'm going to get you.
But it depends who's and France,there's a famous line.
My dad always say it's, you know, some of them are Wales and
I'm only a tadpoles. So if you're going to go bite
them in the arse, make sure he gets one way fast.
So it's, yeah. In terms of what we're looking
to do long term, we've got a really strong presence starting
to grow now in the EU. Yeah, everyone says there's no
(19:55):
tipping in the EUI beg to differ.
You know, Osiris going over the Brits, everyone the.
I had the owner of a big Mama restaurant group in this morning
on the podcast and he said exactly the same because they
obviously he also part on Sundayand they're doing and they're
involved in the, the checkout, right, the payment.
And he was saying that actually tipping is a huge, huge in the
EU. And it's only going to get
(20:15):
bigger as well. Yeah.
Why? Because businesses margins are
being squeezed and they want to pay their staff more.
Yeah. And well, in Ireland, we feel
very uncomfortable saying no to a service tip.
So I just clicked the first one and it's like awkwardness.
But now, yeah, there's a huge presence starting to grow in the
EU. We've just announced our first
embedded tipping solution with the bank.
So again, everyone's going down different routes in this market.
(20:37):
We found a really nice angle of embedding into merchant service
providers that offer just card machines or full suites.
So now with my pause, if you leave a tip on their network,
you have an opportunity to push it through, just tip and get
some significant savings and whatever else.
So they have like 300,000 customers across the EU.
It's not bad. I can't wait, but I just need a
(20:57):
breakthrough for a minute. But it's there's plenty of other
banks starting to queue up. So it's it's just that's a
really. That's the case as well, right.
And it often with the stuff thatyou just need to use case for an
example or case study, whatever where you can kind of say, look,
we've done it once, we can now replicate.
Yeah, the way I look at it is, you know, my pause jumped into
the sea 1st and everyone's asking was a cold.
Yeah. So they're hopefully going to
follow. So that's the goal.
And then my part, I must be honest, I've dealt with a lot of
(21:19):
pause companies haven't dealt with them are.
They are they Irish? No, no, they're they're
Bulgarian. They got a acquired by Advanced
last year for probably about half a billion.
They're the next big challenger to Dojo.
Really. They're just acquiring staff
left, right and center. So yeah.
They're going on the list. They're going on the list.
Yeah. It's an exciting firm to watch.
I sometimes feel like I'm a Guinea pig because I feel like
(21:41):
we're testing stuff. Out for the I must you must be
in a whilst. It might be like for you kind of
exciting because you can't you've got the ability to be
agile, right, haven't you? You don't have to worry about 50
people getting their mortgages paid this month because of you
as in team members just like a. Couple of them.
Yeah, generally so, but but thatpressure that I think it being a
founder, the worst thing is thatpayroll pressure.
(22:02):
It's horrible because you are responsible for the people,
which makes you grow up really quick.
But I think it's quite nice thatyou're agile enough to say, you
know what, let's give it a go. Yeah, like we've got 12 full
time staff, the team's at 16 apart from that.
So we have got a good structure around us.
What we found from going the angle we've gone is we can push
a lot of the kind of chaos on toother providers.
So if an issue happens in my pause, well go speak with my
(22:23):
pause. Yeah, it's not like you're.
Holding this. It's not a complete our issue
like so yeah, look, I think that's the big thing.
It is a huge part for us though customer service.
I think there's other providers out there that do different
things, not just tipping, but yeah, like we love just helping
customers get it sorted, move onreally quickly.
And I think that's a massive part of this industry because
again, if you ask for the bill and the person doesn't come back
(22:44):
for half an hour, it's exactly the same logic.
So the same staff, the pressure that's put on the staff to give
the bill is exactly the same pressure they put on us.
So the best way to do is either keep them updated or sort of
very fast. And I think it's one thing that
tech products don't. A lot of tech products don't
understand about this industry selling into it, that it is a
motive that people do like. You've got their money.
Restaurant partners are looking for partners, not suppliers so
(23:05):
it is interesting the way the way you guys have to interact
and what about you 2 because that so and so I'm going to say
her name right it's Kira Kira Kira's just.
Spelt the wrong way, like it's just spelt the Irish way.
It's her fault, right? It's like Neve and you know I.
Met a girl called Quiva Oh yeah,in Edinburgh, works at
Hawksmoor. And I said oh give me your
e-mail. And she wrote I was like no, no,
no your e-mail. But then she goes, that is my
(23:26):
name as. A Hieroglyphics.
Yeah, how do you say? It's weird.
Weird spelling, but great name. But yeah, So what?
What's you're going to move overhere soon?
Yeah, so like we're just travelling a lot at the moment.
So like for the next couple of weeks I'm here once a week at
this stage, Bulgaria for a week.I'm in Got the slush if anybody
wants to meet me in slush and how slush and Helsinki, it's
like it's as as big as the the web some at this stage.
(23:48):
So it's like it's all about techcompanies evolving, growing,
like they have a pitch off therethat the the winner gets
£1,000,000. What get my backside there?
I've got my own little tech companies to get.
The pencils out in a minute colors.
See you at Slush. Everyone won't be on next week,
but yeah. That's really it.
So it's the team will continue to grow over here.
(24:10):
You've got a really nice business that's growing quite
well in Ireland. So we have a team over there and
we've got some really cool partners starting to emerge in
the EU as well. Very cool AI, obviously I can't
get through an episode without talking about it.
Huge impact on your product already in there I imagine.
Yeah, Yeah, of course it is. It's more I think we're just AI
is an interesting one. We're just trying to figure out
where it works well I think. I don't know if anyone has seen
(24:31):
the the Chat BT5 release and howunderwhelming that was it.
Just had a purple tone to it, that's about it.
You're kind of going like if that was me fully integrated
with that solution, I was using it for everything.
You're kind of going, I've just got a worst product.
So yeah, we're finding use cases.
It's been phenomenal for customer service solving issues
because you know every time you're on board a new
restaurant, hotel or whatever itis, it's the same issues over
(24:53):
and over again. It's that repetitive.
Yeah, yeah, of course. So you can have a boss that does
that. We're looking at how we can
integrate that further into sales.
I've heard some reads, one of our newer partners, Swoopods,
for example. I know that Lee and the team
have built some phenomenal AI tech that is all about outbound.
Yeah. I just think it's it's.
Going to be I just put them intoa quote we're doing this week.
Actually. Swoopods.
I hadn't heard from them, but I've just reached out to him,
(25:15):
the same guy. Doing really doing really well.
But again, it's just all these different angles.
It's finding out where you can replace the human touch.
And as you said earlier on, it is the kind of human digital
side though, yeah, you can't go all the way to AI because it's
that. Repair.
It's where we've trained people to be robots, Yeah, as in we've
made people do boring jobs and call centers or whatever it
might be. That's where it can have that
massive impact. Right on.
(25:35):
Repetitive but trying to RIP it out of like emotional human
interaction. The meeting I just had there,
they want to meet me in person and you know, as my dad says,
look at the white your eyes and see exactly the type of person
you are. Because in sales, and I've
learned this the hard way, it's not even hard way.
I've learned they don't care about the sale, They don't care
about the product. It's are you going to be there
when it goes wrong? Yeah.
(25:56):
A. 100% and I can say from meeting you for 26 minutes
actually that I would buy off you too.
And I think I think it's one of the things that young founders,
which is great, right, because but normally they're bit older
than you. Come on here.
I think it's really interesting to look because you have that
you have those key elements. I'm sure Kira does as well about
you that actually just say I'm here to stay.
I'm going to do some damage in agood way.
(26:17):
In a good way. No, no, but I have a good friend
who was a chef, right very quick.
He's good. He was a chef.
He was always a pain in the ass to work with much younger than
me, always very creative, but hated being in structure
couldn't stand it. Hate you being told what to do,
hate you being told what to cookand ended up leaving building
his own business events business.
And now he's working for the Welsh government doing all kinds
of crazy, but still his rebellious self right.
(26:38):
And I I really appreciate peoplelike that because I think
without them the world's pretty dull and I think I think you're
one of them that's it's a pleasure to meet you.
I think it's been there. Thank you.
Very nice to meet you. Look, if people are listening to
you and they're thinking, who isthis crazy maverick?
How do we get hold of him? How do they get hold of you?
What's your? What's the website?
Justtip.net, justtip.co.uk depending where you are in the
world, OK, we have the best trunk, the best tipping solution
(26:59):
in the world. Planet, the universe is about to
come, so wait for the next generation.
But in all honesty, come have a chat with us.
Like in some cases, if you don'twant to buy off us, people just
ask us questions. Yeah, evidently somebody at some
point will say, oh, they gave usa hand coach out with them.
Like the end of the day, sales is about building relationships.
So our big foothold in the UK we're starting to to carve out
(27:20):
is all about making sure that we're understandable, relatable
and I guess scalable nonsense aswell.
So. But you know what, you've just
built a really meaningful relationship.
The last 25 minutes. I know I've really enjoyed
because obviously when you do a lot of Fair on listening, this
is my 4th today, but actually been the most enjoyable.
So thank you very much mate. I really appreciate it.
Enjoy your how long 24 hours here then off again.
Back next week, so. And then we'll we'll see you all
(27:42):
at slush, all right? Don't win there, let me win.
Cheers. Bye.
Bye. Thank you.
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I presume you just didn't wake up, leave school and start just
tip or did you? Yeah, actually I wanted to leave
a tip and it just hit me like, well, I never really trust it's
going to the staff and I'm kind of like, well, someone's got to
put this together. If you push your tips correctly
(01:06):
through a trunk system, like just tip, the business pays no
nick and the employee pays no nick.
So just for contact, I got the one of the lowest grades in my
class in entrepreneurship. It's how similar stories of
people been able to pay a bill they just couldn't get.
To I've learned they don't care about the sale, they don't care
about the product. It's.
Are you going to be there when it goes wrong?
That's actually what it means bythe way, CEO and all that means
nothing apart from the fact you're the guys.
There's nobody above you. Yeah, that's a starter really on
(01:29):
straight out of secondary schooland before even went to college.
You work hard for your money. You want to make sure it goes to
the staff, Will. Evidently that's what we make
sure that happens. We should see, you know, at
least 5-6 K saved for the average business a year.
That was like emotion. I was like, OK, I'm actually
kind of doing something here that is helping people.
Welcome to the next episode of Tech of Toast Podcast.
Today I'm delighted to be joinedby James Fahey, Co founder of
Just Tip. Is that right?
(01:50):
Did I get that right? Just about, yeah.
Fahi Fahi, how are you mate? Good.
Welcome to Borbos. Yeah, we're both tied.
It's the end of the day, isn't it?
We'll do our best to entertain you for the next 20 minutes.
But at least you're an Irish manat a scouter, yeah?
Yeah, you can't. I'm talking the energy is high
or the probably in our minds we're quite tired.
Look, anyway, so are you. You're not pacing London.
Are you travelling up and backwards and forwards or?
(02:10):
Co Founders Secure is based here.
I'm over and back. I'm moving over at the end of
the year. Oh, you really?
Yeah. Let's get to that stage of my
life now. OK, Start paying rent.
Tell us a little bit about your tell us a little bit about how
you got to this point, because Ipresume you just didn't wake up,
leave school and start just tip or did you?
Yeah, this all started back whenI was, I was 19/18/19.
(02:32):
I was in a coffee shop. I wanted to leave a tip and it
just hit me like, well, I never really trust it's going to the
staff and I'm kind of like, well, someone's got to put this
together. So December 2020, we started to
to piece together this. Myself and Kira carried work in
hospitality. I've done some stints and
construction summaries and whatever else.
But literally it was as simple as that.
Started to put together idea andthen it just rolled in something
(02:52):
that is today. So it's come with challenges,
smoke and smoke and mirrors. It's probably a big thing.
But yeah, that was it to start areally young straight out of
secondary school before I even went to college.
That's mental, yeah. And the learning must be like on
a steep curve then, because I was just talking about my,
because you're nearly as young as my son.
So my, I was talking about my son going to his first year as
(03:13):
uni, Right. But the learning curve that
you're going on must be pretty huge.
Yeah, it was always interesting because we were just saying
that. So I finished uni last year,
Kira finished this year and I, yeah, I'll be in lectures and
they'll be talking about this that later.
I'm like, no, that's not true. Like they're just for context.
I got the one of the lowest grades in my class in
entrepreneurship in my course. It just shows kids don't stay in
(03:36):
school. Yeah.
Or do if you're if you've got brains.
Never. It's true, isn't it?
Because I, I think often with business you, you, you learn on
the job, right? It's very hard to learn out.
But I mean some stuff you can learn I suppose.
Systems and structure. There's the baseline there,
yeah. But it's, it's it's when you
start dealing with shareholders,customers, stakeholders and
then, yeah, it becomes an interesting old journey.
(03:56):
You know, you never it's not a linear line 100%, especially
when you start as a first time founder.
If I was a second time founder or hopefully when I'm a second
time founder, it's it should be a bit more streamlined, but I'm.
Sure, a bug of you. You're he's already sold.
This is on the next. One.
No, no, not yet. Tell us.
Tell us that so people don't know you don't know the product.
Tell us what the product does isyour best pitch.
(04:16):
Yes, of course. So from a consumer point of
view, yeah, we make sure any tipthat's left or service charge in
a restaurant, hotel or coffee shop goes directly to the staff.
From a business point of view, we do three things.
So I wanted to make it really simple because when you're doing
a cold call and I'd love a good cold call, especially like how
you can't say the words that people tell me uncalled calls at
the end of the book on this. But we, we broke it down into 3
(04:37):
core letters CAT compliance withcompliance with legislation,
automation of payouts and tax savings.
So we ensure a complete compliance for any tact tipping
laws across the EU and the UK. We pay each individual employee
to remove about a day's work at least a month for the business.
And then I guess because tips are going through our trunk
scheme and whatever else, there's quite a considerable tax
(04:58):
saving for the business. So we should see, you know, at
least 5-6 K saved for the average business a year.
And the legislation was early inIreland, right?
You you guys went before? Us.
Oh, we're brilliant in Ireland, yeah.
Yeah. Because you're better at the tax
over here, I have to say. Yeah, mostly collecting tax,
yeah. That's how my accountant that
was, I presume then you had it gave you a bit of a leg up
(05:20):
understanding what you were doing over in Ireland before you
came over here. Are we already here?
Yeah, yeah, we were here already.
But I think the legislation, Ireland, it's definitely not as
stringent as the UK, right. It was like a warm up.
So, you know, we had the head start.
It was great. I think when the when the
changes came in here, there was just chaos.
I know, I know the other providers that do what we do as
well. And I think we all just wanted
to search for clarity. Is there clarity here today?
(05:44):
Maybe. There's definitely, there's
definitely Gray areas, but I guess people are just getting on
with it now. Businesses are required to push
tips directly to staff and make sure it's transparent and OK.
As a consumer, you work hard foryour money, you want to make
sure it goes to the staff. Well, evidently that's what we
make sure that happens. So it makes sense.
Legislation, it was always goingto be an interesting one when,
(06:05):
you know, brown envelopes was a thing for many, many, many years
and I guess. Back in my day mate, there's
lots of brown envelopes. But that's it.
But then as an employee, you don't know what you're getting.
As a consumer, you know, we weretalking about accountants.
We work hard for our money. You want to make sure you're
leaving the tip for the staff. And look, there's so many decent
employers out there. It's just the one or two that
that don't do the wrong thing. Maybe once it's like.
Schooling IT11 bad person ruins it for everyone.
(06:26):
Exactly. So yeah.
And do you remember the first time you must?
How old were you? The first tip went through
first. Just tip. 15th of July 2020. 15.
15th of July 2021 OK, our first customer Lemon Crap was a crap
shop in Dublin. I'll never forget it Like it was
just it was my life got so much worse after it.
(06:47):
No, no, because. You have 3 lemon craps or.
Oh yeah. Nothing funny.
That sounds like a niche business.
It was. It was.
It was definitely memorable. Now the business has just
changed completely since then. And how many of you?
Because I guess you don't need to be like a massively
overstaffed tech company. No, it's quite lean, right?
I think like the whole thing hasbeen a complete learning curve.
I think we've gone from a directsales approach to just like
(07:10):
bashing out cold calls to partnerships and integrations
and Isos and via relationships and all that kind of stuff.
So yeah, I think we've had a change over the last couple
years. My shareholders are really
enjoying the learning curve. It's probably growing up though,
isn't it? Like almost like because it is
because your initial want to go to market is like, I'm going to
go sell my product, right? Yeah, yeah, whatever it takes,
I'm going to go sell it. And then all of a sudden you're
(07:32):
like, God, this is a bit inefficient or we're not
getting. The success we want someone
comes to you and goes, hey, I'vegot X sites, you know, 100
sites. We'd love to take your solution
there. Kind of going hold on.
I've been trying to get there for the last while and you rub
it anyway. But yeah, no, I think it's a bit
of that also when you're young, you know, my mother can
definitely agree with this. I'm an impatient human being, so
I yeah, yeah, of course. So I just had to do it.
(07:53):
And it's like that logic. I was touched the stove figure
out it was hot rather than beingtold it was warm and hot or
whatever else. So, yeah, now a couple of years
of of heavy learning. Now we are still learning, but
in a better light and, and. You mentioned that the partners
in the space weren't going to a job, but I'm guessing I, I find
that in the categories when you've got some more forge in
the way or someone kind of knocking down doors doing it, it
(08:15):
just greases the wheels for everyone, right.
And it gives you the opportunityto catch up or overtake as it
would be. So has that helped you guys
having the other guys kind of kind of move that market
forward? And it's particularly in terms
of awareness, I suppose. Yeah, yeah, sure.
I think that the initial people that were in markets, your
normal car providers did pave the way tipping.
It's so funny, Evan goes. I don't tip, but like tipping.
(08:36):
Service charges are classified as tips under legislation in the
UK, like the UK. You guys love service charges
comparison. Ireland.
Oh really? Yeah.
I was like getting a coffee withmy chairman about maybe a month
ago and I went to the coffee shop, I ordered the coffee, I
collect it and I paid 12 1/2% service charges.
And like, I'm a tipper. I always want to leave a tip for
people but it's it's become nearly mandatory like.
(08:57):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously in the US it's
it is. Well, it's not.
It is, but it's people's salary.Right.
The stories I get. Oh yeah, we were in a restaurant
and I only left a 10% tip and they ran out asking me, you know
what was wrong? Why didn't you leave me 30%?
We get that the whole time. But yeah, come back to point
people have to pave the way. Yeah, tipping is a is an
interesting one. Well, I do love about tipping in
the UK. Is the word trunk From what I
(09:18):
got, I've learned is that poor box in French.
It's just all this stuff. It's so.
Funny, trunk has been the most mystifying thing, even if you
work in. I was in operations for 25
years, Right? And trunk was always a thing
that we used to hear, but no onereally cared unless you were the
trunk master. Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, the last year I've heard the word more trunk more
than I care to remember. But you know, it's something
that people need to educate and run and it's, and it's obviously
(09:40):
helping or it should help the kids who work.
It's the biggest tax break ever.Yeah, like if you push your tips
correctly through a trunk system, like just tip, the
business pays no nick and the employee pays no nick.
So imagine getting your paycheckat the end of the month with no
nick on it. Yeah.
Happy days. What's happening isn't it?
And, and we are a very people driven, you know, it's always
(10:00):
been about people in our industry.
I suppose what's, what's the best feedback you're having from
like not just from your, the people who signed the cheque and
and work with you guys, but the guys on the ground who are kind
of being impacted. Like overarching is always
positive. I always have the negative
stuff. I love figuring out what's going
on. Like, why didn't you like it?
And like, I think the biggest positivity piece we found is 1
(10:21):
is transparency, but two, it's money in the pockets quicker.
So like in the UK previously your pet, you're waiting 10
weeks for your, your funds to hit or whatever was usually was
once a quarter. The legislation now says you've
got to make sure the tips are pushed to your staff bank
account within a month of collecting it.
So collected on today must be intheir accounts by next month.
We do it once a week. Like so it's, it's it's.
(10:41):
But again, it's that impatience,right?
And I think the generation that you're serving, if they've grown
up, the iPhone in the hand, they, they kind of like you just
said, you expect things quick. So I was in a coffee shop in
Dublin and the the staff coined this and I'm not trying to coin
it, but it was like just tip Tuesdays because we used to pay
on Cheers, never Wednesday. But it was like there was like,
Oh yeah, we love just tip because it's they know that's
the day. It's like payroll and they get
(11:03):
many little payroll each month or each week.
And that's makes sense. I mean, that's like viral,
right? Because that's where people
start talking. When you start being quoted or,
you know, used as a an actual phrase, it's insane because you
know you've landed right. It makes you a bit sticky.
I remember that because we've had a couple of tough years and
had to take a lot of learning. That was like, after a very,
very poor week for me, as a verytough week, really that was like
emotion. I was like, OK, I'm actually
(11:24):
kind of doing something here that is helping people.
Yeah. Do you know when you're like,
like, so you're the CEO of a company self-proclaimed and my
dad, just to make sure that's the CEO.
Whatever you want to call me. But it's you just everyone gets
escalated to you. You're the last line of defense.
Yeah. And I was just there like.
That's actually what it means bythe way, CEO and all that means
nothing apart from the fact you're the guys.
There's nobody above you. Yeah, but like that?
(11:45):
No. One's going to save.
You that moment when they're like, you know, just tip
Tuesdays. I was like, OK, Jesus, this is
actually something I'm kind of doing right here.
That's a great I've never heard that before as that analogy of,
you know, people using like that, because you talk to some
of the early access to wages guys to wage stream these kind
of people and they tell similar stories of people being able to
pay a bill they just couldn't get to.
And I think that's especially inthis particular industry,
(12:06):
because people, you know, it's not the best, as we all know,
it's not the best paid industry in the world.
And and I know all the brands are trying hard to fix that, but
it is tough, Ryan, to be able toaccess your cash, it is their
money and be able to get it quick is is absolutely crucial.
Get it quick and then have that same feeling in your stomach are
kind of going you know what thatactually makes sense why I got
that Yeah. So like Kira went that Yeah.
But when Kira worked in a in a restaurant previously before we
(12:28):
started just tip like there was complete.
It was you know how how was thistip split?
Who knows whatever spell was used this week like it was we
used. To put them on the table and
spray. It was like shuffling cards.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, it just brings that
level of transparency. So that's the very biased
opinion of. No, no, but, but no, but we know
it's happening because because I've heard it similar stories,
(12:50):
right, that I know it's happening.
So it's great. And what about there must
because we're year on in the UK.Well, not nearly a year on a.
Year. Was it a year?
October. Yeah, yeah.
So there you go. It's close.
A year on from the tipping legislation in the UK, what kind
of trends are we? Are we seeing anything different
in the market? Is there anything interesting
happening or is it as you expected?
I think it is nearly exactly thesame as Ireland.
Really. The bigger brands are always one
(13:11):
step ahead. They they are more worried about
the big PR follow or yeah. And that that makes complete
sense. Honestly.
Small brands either tell me theydon't care or they'll figure it
out as it comes along. Really.
And exactly how it happened in Ireland.
People say the same thing to me and there was like 500 fines in
the first year in Ireland because of the fine based system
(13:31):
matter and tribunal background. Yeah.
And then people started to pick up the phone.
And so it's generally like between kind of you get the
first first mover straight away,the second movers are the ones
probably 6 to 12 months after. And like we're starting to see
it. So the tribunals and the
different pieces have come out in the last couple of weeks,
which you've probably seen different brands getting, you
know, in different situations. It's leading people to kind of
(13:53):
go, oh. No.
And is that influencing the conversations then when you guys
are going into sell or to, you know, to make people aware of
the product, are you finding that the legislation is pretty
much the leading part of the conversation now compared to I
suppose prior to that when therewas more about just do the right
thing I. Don't think it was ever really
do the right thing. I think it was always about cost
saving or. Like, I mean, I just live in, I
live in a Yeah, yeah. As consumers, we want to do the
(14:14):
right thing because it's it's our money.
But the business just want to get the money to the staff.
And that's the. So I think the other side to
this is the cost saving. You know, businesses are
squeezed. What's the article coming out?
25% of staff have been let go already.
Yeah, these are mega numbers 80.2000 jobs I think or something I
heard. And it's just graceful.
Yeah. This industry props up watches,
you know, people my age. Yeah, our age.
(14:35):
I wish man. But it's fun.
This is an industry propping up what is probably one of the most
overlooked under supported people in the world.
And they continue to have to cutjobs where the job?
Yeah, it's. Frightening.
I mean, it's never and I becauseI've been in for so long, I've
never, I don't think I've ever seen apart from the pandemic,
which was obviously brutal and quick, I've never seen anything.
(14:57):
It feels at the moment like it'son a real tipping point.
There's a bit. There's a, there's a bubble.
I think it's something fun here.You don't.
Know it's a definite, there's a definite change and some are
thriving and doing really well, but you there's a lot, as you
say, who are in that place wherecosts are too hard to bear.
But that's the benefit of us. Then you come in, you say to
them, right, how much you're pushing through service and
tips. In a month they go £1000, right?
(15:18):
You're paying 150, just so you know, they're paying £150 a
month from £1000. Let's get you some savings
there. Yeah.
So in that case we'll come in £8090.00 and and they're going
to have an upside plus we both on the legislation.
So it depends who comes in, how they speak to us.
If it's about legislation, we'regoing to take that box of them
and give them savings, yeah. If it's vice versa, yeah, we're
going to help them either way and also save them.
A bit, I'm guessing normally, right, If you're door stepping
(15:39):
someone, if you're cold calling or if you're kind of bumping
into people, I'm guessing you doleave the saving, right, Because
you know, it's it's that's what I want to hear.
If I own a restaurant or I own abusiness, of course, what are
you going to do for me? Most of our most operators know,
but it's legislation there. It's it is like it's much worse
over here than it is back home. Much worse in terms.
Of the severity of what happenedto your business.
(15:59):
And I think we're starting to see all these tribunals feed
through now. And evidently, you know, there's
one, there's met, there's plentygoing to appeal now.
And once they go through appeal and they probably won't get
through, it becomes law, which means now there's more laws on
top of it. So like holiday pay is a huge
piece now. And how is Holiday going to be
tracked around Trunk if it's going through the business?
(16:19):
It's so it's. I find that stuff so complex,
right? And hasn't been touched.
For years. Maternity, I mean, I include
maternity and all this kind of stuff as well.
It becomes, and not just in the way we understand it legally,
but just with tech as well. It's been really hard.
I mean, I changed rotor system 3or 4 times over the years just
because they couldn't track the holder pay properly.
We kept getting dummy numbers. Like we, we're working with a
(16:40):
crowd at the moment, have about 1000 staff to try and get that
contract done. They have, they have like 4 or
500 agency staff, right? So like, I mean, what agencies
now? And agencies are having a
massive issue because they can'trun a trunk scheme in the sense
that they're seen as the employer.
So it's like there's another agency that we spoke to and they
have 5000 staff on it and they're kind of going, these
(17:02):
people can't do anything but push National Insurance on it
and then push it back onto the customer.
So yeah, tips is is definitely aminefield and service charges.
It's mad and and you've done Howold are you now?
Sorry I didn't 24 so 24. Feel like I'm about 44.
So you'll get there mate. So it's good fun on the way, but
I. Don't want to get there?
Let's just slow down. For a minute, the next 20 years
is great, but like scaling a company because you are now
(17:24):
you're you're scaled. And I don't mean mean in terms a
lot of people think scaling means loads of loads of
employees. It doesn't, it actually means in
terms of growth right business and having a run rate that
people think is attractive to buy you.
That must be, we talked about the learning for it before, but
do you see that traction? Is it, is it you mentioned very
quickly, is it driving you to think what else can I do?
Yeah, It's been such a differentmarket.
(17:46):
When we started this during the bull market back in 20/21/22,
people were just throwing money to the company.
And now it's it's completely different model.
It's gross profit margin, how quickly to profitability, how
much basically how much cash do I have to give you until you can
stop asking me for cash. So, yeah, we've had a really,
really good start to the year. You know, we've we're going to
do hundreds of percent growth this year going into next year.
(18:10):
Yeah, we're starting to figure out, you know, there's lots of
money flowing through the business now as well and we're
helping staff whatever. Else is it like a hoggy stick
approach in the way that you're going to see that?
It was like this to start with and it went down.
Now it's like this. Broken hoggy stick.
Like honestly, starting this thing so you're so young.
I've taken a lot of learning. I don't think it's your age.
I mean, obviously your age has an impact at some point, but I
actually think that a lot of first time founders will go
(18:32):
through that crap anyway just because it's a new business,
right? You're anything along the way?
I did not think that was going to happen.
Yeah. Or you didn't think you'd meet
that person who would just yeah,there's some very bad people out
there. Yeah, I'm sure there's something
and they will take advantage of you all day long, right,
Regardless of age, doesn't. Matter as a first time founder.
And again, I'm yet to figure outwhat a second time founder feels
like. But you're so.
The same but older you're. Just starting to feel more
(18:53):
optimistic. You're kind of going, oh, yeah,
you can definitely bring me to the US, Yeah.
So that you have the significantamount of naivety.
Yeah, I would say yeah. That kind of judgement.
And and that and people get excited about that kind of stuff
as well, right, if you're looking for opportunities.
Well, it takes somebody is just to go along and go, yeah, it's
20 grand to this and you're going to go, OK, let's get the
money into your accountant. So yeah, I know.
It's like, that's life. Yeah.
(19:13):
But it is what it is. And is there, what does it look
like going down the road then? So if you're looking forward to
the product and what you can, isthere much more you can do with
the product you mentioned there you're talking about holiday
pay? Yeah, yeah.
So we've got some really cool competitors in the market and
again, you can only just enjoy what they're doing and figure
out how it could become better because that's all it's about.
It's a healthy, competitive you're.
Like swimming behind the sharks,right?
(19:34):
Going yeah, I'm going to get you.
But it depends who's and France,there's a famous line.
My dad always say it's, you know, some of them are Wales and
I'm only a tadpoles. So if you're going to go bite
them in the arse, make sure he gets one way fast.
So it's, yeah. In terms of what we're looking
to do long term, we've got a really strong presence starting
to grow now in the EU. Yeah, everyone says there's no
(19:55):
tipping in the EUI beg to differ.
You know, Osiris going over the Brits, everyone the.
I had the owner of a big Mama restaurant group in this morning
on the podcast and he said exactly the same because they
obviously he also part on Sundayand they're doing and they're
involved in the, the checkout, right, the payment.
And he was saying that actually tipping is a huge, huge in the
EU. And it's only going to get
(20:15):
bigger as well. Yeah.
Why? Because businesses margins are
being squeezed and they want to pay their staff more.
Yeah. And well, in Ireland, we feel
very uncomfortable saying no to a service tip.
So I just clicked the first one and it's like awkwardness.
But now, yeah, there's a huge presence starting to grow in the
EU. We've just announced our first
embedded tipping solution with the bank.
So again, everyone's going down different routes in this market.
(20:37):
We found a really nice angle of embedding into merchant service
providers that offer just card machines or full suites.
So now with my pause, if you leave a tip on their network,
you have an opportunity to push it through, just tip and get
some significant savings and whatever else.
So they have like 300,000 customers across the EU.
It's not bad. I can't wait, but I just need a
(20:57):
breakthrough for a minute. But it's there's plenty of other
banks starting to queue up. So it's it's just that's a
really. That's the case as well, right.
And it often with the stuff thatyou just need to use case for an
example or case study, whatever where you can kind of say, look,
we've done it once, we can now replicate.
Yeah, the way I look at it is, you know, my pause jumped into
the sea 1st and everyone's asking was a cold.
Yeah. So they're hopefully going to
follow. So that's the goal.
And then my part, I must be honest, I've dealt with a lot of
(21:19):
pause companies haven't dealt with them are.
They are they Irish? No, no, they're they're
Bulgarian. They got a acquired by Advanced
last year for probably about half a billion.
They're the next big challenger to Dojo.
Really. They're just acquiring staff
left, right and center. So yeah.
They're going on the list. They're going on the list.
Yeah. It's an exciting firm to watch.
I sometimes feel like I'm a Guinea pig because I feel like
(21:41):
we're testing stuff. Out for the I must you must be
in a whilst. It might be like for you kind of
exciting because you can't you've got the ability to be
agile, right, haven't you? You don't have to worry about 50
people getting their mortgages paid this month because of you
as in team members just like a. Couple of them.
Yeah, generally so, but but thatpressure that I think it being a
founder, the worst thing is thatpayroll pressure.
(22:02):
It's horrible because you are responsible for the people,
which makes you grow up really quick.
But I think it's quite nice thatyou're agile enough to say, you
know what, let's give it a go. Yeah, like we've got 12 full
time staff, the team's at 16 apart from that.
So we have got a good structure around us.
What we found from going the angle we've gone is we can push
a lot of the kind of chaos on toother providers.
So if an issue happens in my pause, well go speak with my
(22:23):
pause. Yeah, it's not like you're.
Holding this. It's not a complete our issue
like so yeah, look, I think that's the big thing.
It is a huge part for us though customer service.
I think there's other providers out there that do different
things, not just tipping, but yeah, like we love just helping
customers get it sorted, move onreally quickly.
And I think that's a massive part of this industry because
again, if you ask for the bill and the person doesn't come back
(22:44):
for half an hour, it's exactly the same logic.
So the same staff, the pressure that's put on the staff to give
the bill is exactly the same pressure they put on us.
So the best way to do is either keep them updated or sort of
very fast. And I think it's one thing that
tech products don't. A lot of tech products don't
understand about this industry selling into it, that it is a
motive that people do like. You've got their money.
Restaurant partners are looking for partners, not suppliers so
(23:05):
it is interesting the way the way you guys have to interact
and what about you 2 because that so and so I'm going to say
her name right it's Kira Kira Kira's just.
Spelt the wrong way, like it's just spelt the Irish way.
It's her fault, right? It's like Neve and you know I.
Met a girl called Quiva Oh yeah,in Edinburgh, works at
Hawksmoor. And I said oh give me your
e-mail. And she wrote I was like no, no,
no your e-mail. But then she goes, that is my
(23:26):
name as. A Hieroglyphics.
Yeah, how do you say? It's weird.
Weird spelling, but great name. But yeah, So what?
What's you're going to move overhere soon?
Yeah, so like we're just travelling a lot at the moment.
So like for the next couple of weeks I'm here once a week at
this stage, Bulgaria for a week.I'm in Got the slush if anybody
wants to meet me in slush and how slush and Helsinki, it's
like it's as as big as the the web some at this stage.
(23:48):
So it's like it's all about techcompanies evolving, growing,
like they have a pitch off therethat the the winner gets
£1,000,000. What get my backside there?
I've got my own little tech companies to get.
The pencils out in a minute colors.
See you at Slush. Everyone won't be on next week,
but yeah. That's really it.
So it's the team will continue to grow over here.
(24:10):
You've got a really nice business that's growing quite
well in Ireland. So we have a team over there and
we've got some really cool partners starting to emerge in
the EU as well. Very cool AI, obviously I can't
get through an episode without talking about it.
Huge impact on your product already in there I imagine.
Yeah, Yeah, of course it is. It's more I think we're just AI
is an interesting one. We're just trying to figure out
where it works well I think. I don't know if anyone has seen
(24:31):
the the Chat BT5 release and howunderwhelming that was it.
Just had a purple tone to it, that's about it.
You're kind of going like if that was me fully integrated
with that solution, I was using it for everything.
You're kind of going, I've just got a worst product.
So yeah, we're finding use cases.
It's been phenomenal for customer service solving issues
because you know every time you're on board a new
restaurant, hotel or whatever itis, it's the same issues over
(24:53):
and over again. It's that repetitive.
Yeah, yeah, of course. So you can have a boss that does
that. We're looking at how we can
integrate that further into sales.
I've heard some reads, one of our newer partners, Swoopods,
for example. I know that Lee and the team
have built some phenomenal AI tech that is all about outbound.
Yeah. I just think it's it's.
Going to be I just put them intoa quote we're doing this week.
Actually. Swoopods.
I hadn't heard from them, but I've just reached out to him,
(25:15):
the same guy. Doing really doing really well.
But again, it's just all these different angles.
It's finding out where you can replace the human touch.
And as you said earlier on, it is the kind of human digital
side though, yeah, you can't go all the way to AI because it's
that. Repair.
It's where we've trained people to be robots, Yeah, as in we've
made people do boring jobs and call centers or whatever it
might be. That's where it can have that
massive impact. Right on.
(25:35):
Repetitive but trying to RIP it out of like emotional human
interaction. The meeting I just had there,
they want to meet me in person and you know, as my dad says,
look at the white your eyes and see exactly the type of person
you are. Because in sales, and I've
learned this the hard way, it's not even hard way.
I've learned they don't care about the sale, They don't care
about the product. It's are you going to be there
when it goes wrong? Yeah.
(25:56):
A. 100% and I can say from meeting you for 26 minutes
actually that I would buy off you too.
And I think I think it's one of the things that young founders,
which is great, right, because but normally they're bit older
than you. Come on here.
I think it's really interesting to look because you have that
you have those key elements. I'm sure Kira does as well about
you that actually just say I'm here to stay.
I'm going to do some damage in agood way.
(26:17):
In a good way. No, no, but I have a good friend
who was a chef, right very quick.
He's good. He was a chef.
He was always a pain in the ass to work with much younger than
me, always very creative, but hated being in structure
couldn't stand it. Hate you being told what to do,
hate you being told what to cookand ended up leaving building
his own business events business.
And now he's working for the Welsh government doing all kinds
of crazy, but still his rebellious self right.
(26:38):
And I I really appreciate peoplelike that because I think
without them the world's pretty dull and I think I think you're
one of them that's it's a pleasure to meet you.
I think it's been there. Thank you.
Very nice to meet you. Look, if people are listening to
you and they're thinking, who isthis crazy maverick?
How do we get hold of him? How do they get hold of you?
What's your? What's the website?
Justtip.net, justtip.co.uk depending where you are in the
world, OK, we have the best trunk, the best tipping solution
(26:59):
in the world. Planet, the universe is about to
come, so wait for the next generation.
But in all honesty, come have a chat with us.
Like in some cases, if you don'twant to buy off us, people just
ask us questions. Yeah, evidently somebody at some
point will say, oh, they gave usa hand coach out with them.
Like the end of the day, sales is about building relationships.
So our big foothold in the UK we're starting to to carve out
(27:20):
is all about making sure that we're understandable, relatable
and I guess scalable nonsense aswell.
So. But you know what, you've just
built a really meaningful relationship.
The last 25 minutes. I know I've really enjoyed
because obviously when you do a lot of Fair on listening, this
is my 4th today, but actually been the most enjoyable.
So thank you very much mate. I really appreciate it.
Enjoy your how long 24 hours here then off again.
Back next week, so. And then we'll we'll see you all
(27:42):
at slush, all right? Don't win there, let me win.
Cheers. Bye.
Bye. Thank you.
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