Tim McLaughlin is a restaurateur and restaurant tech extraordinaire. Having owned two restaurants, Tim understand the grit, innovation, and drive that it takes to run a business in the restaurant industry. Now, as the CEO of GoTab, Tim applies this experience to making payment processes easier and other operations run more smoothly.

Here are a few highlights from this episode:

Featured takeaway: Despite tech innovations, humans are still the core

“Humans should focus on the things that humans add value to. Those things are the more sophisticated aspects of the industry. The communication and the storytelling. All those things we convey very well.”

What is the most important aspect of the guest experience nowadays?

Control.

“When I order, I want to order. I’m sorry that you’re busy and I’m sorry that you’re picking up a glass that someone broke on the other side of the room. I want to give the guest control and power when they choose to go out and eat.”

What successful things have you seen or tried lately?

“We’re doing some menu optimization things so we can start doing market tests on menu data to understand conversions, satisfactions, and recurrences around rolling out a new product.”

Who deserves an Ovation in the restaurant industry?

“I get a ton of inspiration outside the restaurant industry. I was just reading amazon’s new handprint payment method that they just rolled out. Restaurant specific, I would say food halls in general.”