Contactless Before Contactless Was Cool (Podcast)

Contactless has become a buzz word for restaurants during the pandemic. In this episode of The Main Course host Barbara Castiglia talked with Tim McLaughlin, the CEO of GoTab,  a Restaurant Commerce Platform (RCP) used by large- and mid-sized restaurants, breweries, bars, and hotels. GoTab uniquely allows patrons to have freedom of choice. They can order and pay through a server (old school), or directly from their mobile phones (contactless ordering and payment – new school), or blend the two experiences all on one tab, through its easy-to-use mobile point-of-sale (POS), contactless ordering and payment features, and kitchen management systems (KMS).

The duo dug into contactless payment and GoTab, which started in 2016. McLaughlin started his career in e-commerce and was attempting to solve the pain point of payment in restaurants. 

“As many people in hospitality know, payments are a friction point and not a fun point of dining,” McLaughlin said. “There were not solutions I thought were very good.”

So, he started GoTab on the side. It didn’t take off because it only focused on payments. So, they set out to solve another pain point: ordering. They launched several versions of their software that allowed users to order through their phones.

A new episode of The Main Course, our podcast series with MarketScale, is served up every Tuesday and Thursday.