Tucker’s approach is clear: trust must be the default, yet it should be accompanied by a due diligence that ensures alignment of vision and values.
Give An Ovation is the podcast where we interview restaurant owners, operators, and experts, to get their strategies and tactics so that youi can deliver a 5-star guest experience. Available on all major podcasting sites.
Today’s episode is with Matt Tucker, a titan in the industry who was formerly the President and COO of Olo, and is now the Head of Tock.
Matt and Zack discuss:
– The ‘cockroach’ strategy—a testament to the relentless hustle required to weather the tempests of industry uncertainties
– Ben Horowitz’s “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”
– Matt’s insights on building teams based on trust
– And more!
Here are some highlights:
How do you build great companies? (5:32)
“Well, I think you start with great people. I mean, I don’t know any other way to do it.
People talk about, do you need a great idea, or do you need a great team?…Oftentimes you’ll hear a relatively even split… I think that that’s not the case. I think the great teams are the most important things…
Because, even if you’re not in a perfect product market fit, if you have the right people, they will find that product market fit.”
How do you build trust in a team? (15:25)
“Well, I mean, I tend to come at my relationships with trust built in, like I do my very best to, when I’m interviewing for a role, to spend a lot of time with the candidates who are sort of rising to the top, but to spend even more time doing background checks to make sure that my intuition is not incorrect.
…You know, if you make a mistake, you know mistakes are made all the time, so that’s not something that’s going to lose my trust. If you make the same mistake multiple times, then I’m starting to, you know, think about should this be something I look at further.”
Who’s someone who deserves an Ovation in the restaurant industry? (18:44)
“The team at Ever – Michael, Curtis, Amy. First of all, the food quality is just off the charts, but the level of hospitality and the passion they have for their guests is really hard to match.
I think sometimes, Zack, when you think about fine dining, you think about sort of a pretentiousness that can creep into how you’re served, how you’re treated. But to do it with the grace they do it and the humor they do it and just the realness, like you, while the place is beautiful and again, maybe you’ve seen it on The Bear and the food is incredible, it’s just a great experience because it’s not fake at all.”
For more, follow Matt on LinkedIn and check out Tock – a comprehensive platform built to fundamentally change the way restaurants, bars, and wineries think about and run their business.
Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out the whole episode, as well as other interviews with restaurant gurus by checking out “Give an Ovation: A Podcast For Restaurants” on ovationup.com/podcast or your favorite place to listen to podcasts.
