A Birmingham-based startup wants to help with your bar tab on New Year’s Eve (and on every other night, for that matter).
TabX, the brainchild of Jay Taylor and his brother Josh Taylor, started as a way to address the very real pain points surrounding the opening and closing of a tab.
The app has integration partnerships with point-of-sale (POS) systems like Toast, Aloha, and FocusPOS, allowing end-users to skip the back-and-forth of waiting to swipe a credit card with a bartender before ordering a drink.
This not only means that patrons can save time waiting in line, but it also allows someone to open up or close a tab remotely.
For bartenders, TabX is designed to streamline the purchasing process for drinks, food items, or anything else that might be rung up on a specific POS system.
“We went out of our way to not change how a bartender and server’s job is organized,” Josh Taylor told Hypepotamus. That ensures that bartenders can still check IDs and get drinks into the hands of the right people.
The app’s revenue is based on a per-transaction model, but Taylor sees a unique opportunity to develop a direct marketing channel that connects alcohol brands with consumers and locations.
That could help users know about nearby Happy Hours or learn about a new brand.
That is particularly important for alcohol brands which traditionally have to rely on “signs at bars, bar mats, and festival sponsorships,” Taylor said, to get in front of new customers.
TabX went live on the App Store and on Google Play in January of 2020. Of course, that timing was not ideal for an app focused on bars and restaurants. “But what we have is a truly contactless solution,” said Taylor. “When I walk into a bar or restaurant, I never had to hand someone my credit card or touch a pen that somebody else may have touched. Without sacrificing the service experience, we’re eliminating several points of human contact.”
Both from a safety and convenience factor, TabX feels strongly positioned to help bars and restaurants navigate the ever-changing post-pandemic world.
“COVID forced us all to really think about how we can alter the things we’re doing to be as safe as possible without shutting down the economy,” added Taylor.
As a “foodie town,” Birmingham is a perfect location to start such a venture, according to Taylor. “Eating and drinking is just part of our culture…so from a bar and restaurant industry perspective, there’s no shortage of locations for us to integrate.”
TabX can currently be found in 20 locations and has plans to expand in 2022.
The team — which has raised two convertible note rounds to date — is in the midst of raising its first equity round. And that is certainly something to raise a glass to.
