The Gotab Method: Building Enterprise-Grade Solutions for Traditional Industries
When your point-of-sale system runs on Microsoft DOS, you don’t have a technology problem – you have an architectural one. While most restaurant tech companies try to do everything within a closed system, Gotab is bringing enterprise software architecture to an industry desperate for modernization.
In a recent Category Visionaries episode, co-founder Tim McLaughlin shared how his enterprise software background is reshaping restaurant technology architecture.
The Enterprise Software Lens
Having built software consulting companies before entering the restaurant industry, Tim brought a fundamentally different perspective to restaurant technology. “My background is actually enterprise software. And in enterprise, there’s a very clear path for best of breed,” he explains.
This enterprise mindset revealed stark contrasts with existing restaurant technology. As Tim notes, “I quickly learned just how broken restaurant technology is. It’s all closed, it’s all proprietary. I mean, as an architecture and data, it’s all proprietary. Massive lock in. No portability, hardware lock in. It’s totally crazy.”
Breaking the All-in-One Paradigm
Traditional restaurant technology tries to do everything in one system. Tim explains how this evolved: “In the restaurant, there was only one computer, and so therefore, they had to do everything that had to do with computers in that one product.” This legacy continues with modern providers who “try to do everything. They’re going to do time tracking, they’re going to do payroll, they’re going to do all kinds of stuff.”
The Best-of-Breed Alternative
Instead of building everything, Gotab focuses deeply on three core areas: commerce, operations, and logistics. They’ve built an open API platform that allows integration with specialized solutions. Tim notes they now have “about 100 partners… through an extensive API, which is in fact open, which is also unusual in our space.”
Deep Operational Focus
This specialization allows Gotab to solve problems their competitors ignore. Tim points out that some major competitors have restaurants “buying another product to run the kitchen, which is to me, just such a… it kind of misses the point, because one of the core tenants we have is that the guests want to know what’s going on in the kitchen.”
Proving the Model
The results validate this approach. While “restaurants typically try to stay under 30% of their revenue is spent on labor,” Tim shares that “our restaurants, on average, have a 22% labor cost, which is basically 25% below the industry norm.”
This efficiency comes from deep operational capabilities. High-volume customers like Maui Brewing, which sees “8000 guests come through one restaurant in a week,” require sophisticated tools to maintain efficiency at scale.
Lessons for Founders
Gotab’s experience offers valuable insights for founders bringing enterprise-grade solutions to traditional industries:
- Challenge industry architectural assumptions
- Focus deeply on core capabilities
- Build open platforms that enable ecosystems
- Let operational excellence drive adoption
Their approach also demonstrates how enterprise software principles can transform traditional industries. As Tim envisions the future, “We think that the best technology is invisible and magic… we want all these things to disappear so you can enjoy the experience.”
For B2B founders targeting traditional industries, Gotab’s journey shows how enterprise software principles like best-of-breed architecture and open APIs can create breakthrough solutions. Sometimes the most valuable innovation isn’t new technology, but new ways of architecting existing capabilities to solve fundamental operational challenges.
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