Our Story
Technology Designed by Restaurateurs — For Restaurateurs
Since 2016, we’ve helped savvy hospitality operators optimize their front-of-house service models using cost-effective, agile, contactless technology. Our customers include hundreds of food and beverage establishments across almost 30 states, and growing.
How GoTab Started
GoTab launched in 2016 as a code on the receipt for mobile payment of restaurant tabs. In 2018 it became a QR code. The idea started when co-Founder Tim McLaughlin co-opened his first restaurant and brewery in 2015. It had been a passion project in the works for many years.
Tim had spent the previous 15 years growing and successfully exiting a thriving e-commerce technology agency. He immediately saw areas where his new restaurant could improve operationally. At the same time, he saw they could maintain high quality standards and service.* His agency clients included many high-touch service businesses such as Mandarin Oriental Hotels, Goldman Sachs, Sotheby’s Auction, and similar. Tim was very familiar with bespoke service.
E-Commerce Solutions for the Restaurant Industry
Tim and the GoTab team identified four problems that better restaurant commerce technology could solve:
- How to make it easier for guests to place an order, or reorder an item, without having to flag down a server or wait in line. Solving this problem could result in as much as a 30 percent increase in average cover.
- How to improve the communication between restaurant operators and their guests. Wouldn’t it make sense to be able to address guest issues while they’re still at the establishment. Why wait for guests to submit a bad Yelp review?
- How to avoid order errors that result in frustrated guests and servers and expensive chargebacks. When guests place their own orders, they’re far more likely to get them right.
- How to give guests and servers systems that are inexpensive, functional and easy-to-use? For decades, the restaurant technology category has been dominated by costly, inflexible, hard-to-use systems that limit innovation and burden operators with long-term contracts and hidden costs.
When COVID-19 upended the entire hospitality industry, the problems GoTab started to address four years ago suddenly became more acute for everyone.
So we got to work
Since March 2020, GoTab has experienced a 7,000 percent increase in transaction volume. We’ve acquired hundreds of new customers across the U.S. We’ve worked aggressively to build out new capabilities that our operators need, like a full-featured ecommerce grocery market for Founding Farmers Restaurant Group. When pandemic restrictions made it impossible to serve dine-in guests, we built first-party ordering and delivery capabilities for breweries and restaurants like Institution Ale, and Barcelona Wine Bar.
And our work continues
GoTab never stands still. We intend to provide solutions to help the hospitality industry of the future thrive. To thrive, operators need the flexibility to pivot in response to what’s happening in their unique markets and venues. That could mean integrating with a labor management solution like 7shifts, so they can more efficiently run their operations with reduced staff. Or, it could mean connecting to delivery services like Postmates, so operators can recapture their fair share of lost revenue to third party food delivery services.
Memberships
Branded Strategic Hospitality
Branded Strategic Hospitality is an investment and advisory platform at the intersection of hospitality, technology, innovation and capital. As experienced hospitality owners and operators, Branded brings value to its partner companies through investment, strategic counsel, and its deep industry expertise and connections
Learn about our Branded Strategic Hospitality partnership. →
California Craft Brewers Association
The CCBA provides a broad realm of services to its members in the craft brewing community, including addressing critical business and supply issues and offering gatherings and events to help foster communication and education among our family of brewers and allied trade network. The CCBA’s initiatives and activities promote and protect the growth of the craft brewing industry in California.
Learn about our California Craft Brewers Association membership. →
Children of Restaurant Employees
The Children of Restaurant Employees (CORE) organization provides financial relief when a food and beverage employee with children faces a health crisis, injury, death or natural disaster.
Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association
Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association is Florida’s premier non-profit hospitality industry trade association. The association’s mission is to protect, educate and promote Florida’s $111.7 billion hospitality industry which represents 1.5 million employees.
Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington
The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) is the regional trade association representing restaurants and the foodservice industry in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. The Association works to promote and sustain the growth and development of the industry while providing its members legislative and regulatory representation, marketing and small business support, programming, and events.
Texas Craft Brewers Guild
The Texas Craft Brewers Guild is a Board of Directors led organization that represents the interests of Texas craft brewers. The members of the board hail from craft breweries in all the major metropolitan regions of the state, as well as from different brewery types and sizes. Large craft breweries, small self-distributed craft breweries and brewpubs each have one or more advocates on the board, looking out for their interests.
Texas Restaurant Association
Established in 1994 by the Texas Restaurant Association, the TRA Education Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization focused on providing the necessary resources to help restaurateurs confront educational and labor challenges with the latest innovations in education, technology, and training.
GoTab Makes an Impact
Larger Order Sizes
GoTab operators see higher customer spend — 23% when compared to counter service.
Better Experience
Customers prefer GoTab to traditional models and long lines.
Better Reviews
GoTab operators see higher Yelp reviews — average ½ star higher for GoTab users.
More Efficient Service
GoTab operators process more transactions—typically 3-5 times more at peak vs traditional POS.
Use Technology and Data as a Competitive Advantage
And GoTab operators recognize that the platform allows, many for the first time, the ability to use technology and data analytics as a competitive advantage. They’re gaining greater insight and control of their end-to-end customer experience than ever before. With GoTab, operators can modernize their tech stack without having to rip and replace the investments in legacy POS systems they’ve already made. They get a complete ecommerce platform for their business that sits “over-the-top” of their existing POS.
See how our platform allows you to take control of the front-of-house.
- Deep insights and trends in robust and easy to read dashboards.
- Track week-by-week sales and other metrics.
- Receive real-time customer experience feedback.
- Get notified of staff trends including top employees and anomalies.