Hospitable

On this episode of Hospitable we dive into the cutting edge of technology and its impact on the restaurant and hospitality industry with Lightspeed’s EVP and General Manager of Lightpeed Restaurant, Peter Dougherty. 

We get into how Lightspeed is on the cutting edge of using advanced technology to help restaurants succeed and create better guest experiences.

We talk about Peter’s 12-year journey within Lightspeed and how Lightspeed has continued to evolve and re-define restaurant technology. 

Tune in to hear this awesome episode and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and review!


Timestamps:
[00:01:44] Origin story at Lightspeed.
[00:03:22] Company growth and transformation.
[00:07:33] Making hospitality more human.
[00:10:45] NIHITO visits.
[00:14:13] Staff touch points with guests.
[00:17:24] Hidden menu gems and insights.
[00:22:11] Gen AI in restaurants.
[00:23:04] AI-powered recipe generation and photography.
[00:26:18] Dining experience and labor costs.
[00:30:39] Building a strong ecosystem.
[00:33:07] Growing existing partner relationships.
[00:37:06] Getting back to growth
[00:39:49] Hospitable podcast promotion.

Quotes
  • [00:00:00-00:00:11]  "You know, as you can hear from my voice, we're passionate about the restaurant, and I love the restaurant business. It's tough. Like, to run a great restaurant is tough. But when you do it right, it's something special. And I love"
  • [00:08:28-00:08:38] "But there's the human side, which is, how do we make sure we create a POS that works on the iPhone so it's in the server's pocket so you reduce your labor costs. But so they're not standing there with an iPhone in front of their face between them and the guest."
  • [00:11:26-00:11:36] "We actually know that tips are actually higher on scan to pay on the QR code payments versus on the regular payments."
  • [00:13:42-00:13:52] "People go out to eat to have and you know obviously we're we focus on full service restaurants that's really our mantra that's the we focus on the experiential restaurants"
  • [00:20:20-00:20:30]  "Because if you're better, we're better together. That is serving your community."
  • [00:33:18-00:33:28] "How do we understand the objectives of both sides of the organization? What is the new stuff that both sides are doing? Hey, Lightspeed's doing this new thing. Hey, how do we expand our relationship around this? And vice versa. Hey, Omniboost is doing this new thing. How do we make sure we take advantage of it? Or how do we help support them to grow there?"
  • [00:38:11-00:38:21]  "And that's what's beautiful. And I think getting that growth mindset and seeing what's going to come, I'm really excited for the opportunities that are going to be there for growth, for new technology to open up more human experiences."

Connect:


Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, www.brokenframesstudio.com

Creators & Guests

Host
Rob Napoli
Rob is the Global Head of Brand at Omniboost and US Commercial Lead. He is passionate about sports, travel, and where to find the best whiskey bar in Manhattan.
Guest
Peter Dougherty
EVP & General Manager, Lightspeed Restaurant

What is Hospitable?

Hospitable is a podcast that discusses how to make hospitality MORE human through technology.

Hospitable focuses on discussing the leading challenges facing the hospitality industry and to explore the latest trends, technologies, and best practices that are shaping the industry. Each episode features interviews with hoteliers, restaurateurs, chefs, industry analysts, and other experts who share their insights and experiences on topics such as customer experience, sustainability, innovation, staffing, and more.

Hosted by Rob Napoli

00:00:00:09 - 00:00:15:11
Peter Doroughty
As you can hear from my voice, we’re passionate about the restaurant. I love the restaurant business. It's tough. Like to run a great restaurant is tough. But when you do it right, it's something special. And, I love that we work with tens of thousands of restaurants around the world. And I get to experience them all the time.

00:00:15:13 - 00:00:32:17
Peter Doroughty
And I get to see great restaurant experiences in the variety of great restaurant experiences and a technology company. It's, hard to be able to suit all these different use cases, but I think we're doing a pretty good job. It's what we do every day is preety cool.

00:00:32:19 - 00:00:55:12
Rob Napoli
Hey, how we doing? And we are back again for another episode of Hospitable. I'm your host, Rob Napoli. And today is a super fun episode. Looking forward to our guest, Peter Doroughty, General Manager at Lightspeed. Peter, I just got to see you about a month ago in Montreal at the Castle for Oxygen summit absolutely amazing getting to meet you in person and excited to have you on the pod.

00:00:55:12 - 00:00:56:18
Rob Napoli
Thanks for joining.

00:00:56:20 - 00:01:00:00
Peter Doroughty
Awesome well, thanks for having me, Rob. I'm excited to be here.

00:01:00:02 - 00:01:18:18
Rob Napoli
Yeah it's really interesting. And I want to kind of get into some of the things that about Lightspeed and future trends of things. But what I what I find fascinating when I talk to you is your origin story at Lightspeed. So why don't you give us a little bit. You've made it easy for a while. You were there when it was like a startup into a growth stage, into the public company is now.

00:01:18:19 - 00:01:23:05
Rob Napoli
Talk about your origin story, journey and your life experience.

00:01:23:07 - 00:01:50:00
Peter Doroughty
Yeah, I've been at Lightspeed now for 12 years, so it's definitely been a journey. And the exciting part for me is obviously every couple of years Lightspeed really looks like a different organization and I've had the benefit, I've had the joy of, of being able to go through all these different phases. And, if you go back to 12 years ago, Pete, the sales rep starting at the company, just being a salesperson, selling our original product, Lightspeed onsite, written by the hands of our founder Dax.

00:01:50:01 - 00:02:13:03
Peter Doroughty
That was really our first product. And it's funny to talk about it now, but you know, that was installed software on premise on your Mac local database. It's crazy to talk about now and you know obviously we work in SAS. This was perpetual software licenses, so it was a different era and that's where I started at Lightspeed. That was Lightspeed at the time, 12 years ago, which is wild to talk about now.

00:02:13:05 - 00:02:37:17
Peter Doroughty
But I've had the joy of through the years being a part of all the big step changes that Lightspeed has gone through, be it moving to SAS, getting into the restaurant industry. Obviously we'll talk about that today, launching our account management and customer success teams, building our partnerships group. So I've had a fun journey through it all the way from taking our perpetual software sales team to SAS sales team moving to the cloud.

00:02:37:22 - 00:02:53:21
Peter Doroughty
Again, it's funny to talk about these things now, but that was a thing that we had to do. So moving to the cloud. Getting our account management team stood up because all of a sudden we had enough customers that we had to think about retention and upsell. That was, again, funny to talk about now, but that was a thing.

00:02:53:21 - 00:03:08:22
Peter Doroughty
And then, yes, as we got to IPO saying, hey, we need to be way more serious about our partnerships business. And so I ran that team for three or four years and that was a that was last year. And then, of course, culminating now in leading our hospitality business unit with a global team products all around the world.

00:03:08:22 - 00:03:11:11
Peter Doroughty
And that's obviously happy to talk more about that today.

00:03:11:13 - 00:03:34:19
Rob Napoli
Yeah, that's super cool to kind of see that. It's funny that you bring up like the joke about on prem because, at OmniBoost we still run into a lot of the entrepreneur stuff and it's kind of like, you know, the little like everybody else shakes and how does it still exists? Yeah, your guess is as good as mine, but it's really, it's really cool to see and hear how you've kind of gone through that and you know, what about it?

00:03:34:19 - 00:03:53:07
Rob Napoli
What about Lightspeed? I think about the company organization being a part of the first ever product. What about Lightspeed has kept you there growing for 12 years? You don't see that much anymore in the industry, right. We see a lot of it's that more moving and driven. So what has kept you so grounded to the Lightspeed brand?

00:03:53:09 - 00:04:15:21
Peter Doroughty
I think and you're right, you know, 12 years at a company is so rare nowadays. It's always people, you know, end up staying for a stint three years, four years, and then they look for something new and exciting. But what I've benefited from at Lightspeed is really every 2 to 3 years Lightspeed is a new company. And so yeah, sure, I've worked for 12 years, ah, Lightspeed for 12 years, but Lightspeed 12 years ago is far from the company we are today.

00:04:15:21 - 00:04:38:11
Peter Doroughty
We've acquired tons of companies around the world, brought them together and so it's been effectively a different company every three years And that's how you end up staying somewhere because a the company has totally transformed itself. And that's just also the beautiful story of lightspeed of how we've grown like that. But I've gotten to take advantage of that because every new job that I moved around with in Lightspeed and I get to be part of that step change in the organization.

00:04:38:11 - 00:04:45:09
Peter Doroughty
And that's that means I've had new challenges, new opportunities to grow and learn. And that's why I'm still here 12 years later.

00:04:45:11 - 00:05:06:03
Rob Napoli
I love that. And, I think it's also a testament to what Lightspeed as a company, culture continues to build itself, rebrand itself, to grow with the market. Which leads me to my next question. How from your vision as the general manager, hospitality how is Lightspeed really making an impact on the future of hospitality? We're just at Oxygen

00:05:06:05 - 00:05:23:04
Rob Napoli
I mean, my shoutout to lot of great takeaways from that. The energy was absolutely insane and it was really great to hear a lot of that vision. So what is the how do you feel the kind of your words that Lightspeed is making an impact on the future of hospitality as we look ahead to 2024?

00:05:23:06 - 00:05:38:18
Peter Doroughty
I think there's kind of two answers. There's the answer I would maybe give a restaurant, but even just to the broader world, if you really take a step back, what Lightspeed is doing is looking at what is the cutting edge of technology today. And, even take out the restaurant industry, take out lightspeed.

00:05:38:18 - 00:06:10:08
Peter Doroughty
What is the cutting edge of the technology world today? What is coming out? Obviously, the first thing that pops in everyone's mind is A.I., But there's a lot more than just that. And our job at Lightspeed is say, how do we take these cutting edge things that not a lot of people fully understand and transform that and apply that to the use case of the restaurant so that as an independent restaurant operator, you know, I maybe I have two, three, four or five restaurants, how can I take advantage of this cutting edge technology without having to have a I.T department or, a whole software development team in-house that that is really

00:06:10:14 - 00:06:32:00
Peter Doroughty
Lightspeed’s job. And when I think about the use cases that we're taking from this new tech that's coming out and applying it to the restaurant use case, we can talk about pay at table in the revolution of actually being able to split checks and closing bills right on the payment terminal powered by lightspeed payments or the tap to pay experience, where we've collaborated with Apple, where you don't need a payment terminal anymore, you just tap a credit card right on an iPhone.

00:06:32:00 - 00:06:49:22
Peter Doroughty
Think about that. That would have blown everyone's minds three years ago and now we can do it. So that's really our job is taking this advanced technology that's out in the world and thinking about what's the right way to apply it to a restaurant, to help a restaurant succeed. And that's, really just the evolution of technology for any technology company.

00:06:50:00 - 00:07:15:12
Rob Napoli
I love that. And I think that's really interesting is how generationally those things span, right, with tap to pay the digital nature QR codes in restaurants and really helping restaurants create systems in place that they can adapt to their clientele and make sure that they can give the best service possible. Right. That the theme of this podcast is how to make hospitality more human through technology.

00:07:15:14 - 00:07:36:02
Rob Napoli
You think about that, for a second, and that people think that's counterintuitive, but it's not, because the beauty of it is to tap to pay, bring it to table split the check that makes everyone's experience so much easier. And that's the beauty of what we get to do. So what do you think makes Lightspeed so special and in the way that it creates technology for humans?

00:07:36:02 - 00:07:45:06
Rob Napoli
You brought about Lightspeed job is to for restaurants, you don't have an IT department. So how do you think Lightspeed is really making technology for the human say.

00:07:45:08 - 00:08:01:05
Peter Doroughty
Well, let's even go back to that scenario I talked about before how do we bring in tap to pay or pay a table these experiences where, for the restaurant where reducing their labor costs, maybe that server can handle six tables instead of five. But that's meaningful impact on the operating expense of a restaurant.

00:08:01:07 - 00:08:18:13
Peter Doroughty
But then the immediate answer is, okay, great. Well, we want to make sure they have their POS in the pocket on the iPhone. Great. But there's the human side, which is how do we make sure we create a POS that works on the iPhone so it's in the service pocket. So you reduce your labor costs, but so they're not standing there with an iPhone in front of their face between them and the guest.

00:08:18:18 - 00:08:46:11
Peter Doroughty
And for those listening on just the podcast, I'm holding my phone up in front of my face that is the job of the technology company to really think about what's the new technology that's out there, How do we apply it to the restaurant use case, but how do we make it really work and excel to not only work well and provide the benefits like we described, of reducing the labor cost, but it actually helps the restaurant achieve their objective of providing great experiences for their guests.

00:08:46:13 - 00:09:08:10
Peter Doroughty
Because we can say, Yeah, we got a POS in your pocket and stop there and we've done a good job, but how do you do a great job? It's really thinking through how do we help the restaurant get to their key objective, which is creating great guest experiences? And I think that's what Lightspeed does really well, is we think about that whole ecosystem that we are part of because it's not just a tech ecosystem, it's the owner.

00:09:08:10 - 00:09:21:05
Peter Doroughty
What are their objectives? What are they trying to achieve? What's the server, what are they trying to achieve? You know, a server just wants to have a good night working the shift and they want to make a ton of tips, right. All the rest for the restaurant to succeed, they need to have happy staff who stay and they don't have to replace them.

00:09:21:10 - 00:09:40:14
Peter Doroughty
They also need to have at least in of staff possible to be able to serve their tables, but still balance that with the guest experience. It's really up to us and our product managers to think through that whole ecosystem to make sure we're applying technology in the right way because it's technology for technology's sake. When you're thinking about experience based businesses doesn't work.

00:09:40:16 - 00:10:02:02
Rob Napoli
I love the use of that technology for technology sake and experience. They don't go hand in hand. I think about the rest experience. So what is Lightspeed doing to not only think about those things that get in the mind are you guys are all like going out and meeting with partners and doing deep surveys with them. Are you onsite with them like talk to me about what Lightspeed does to make a big difference in the communities that you serve.

00:10:02:04 - 00:10:32:16
Peter Doroughty
So I think, you know, when I think about our software development process, one thing and we obviously have lots of stuff, but one thing that I think really answers your question is we have this concept called NIHDO visits. It's an acronym and it stands for Nothing Interesting Happens in the Office. And so your job as a product manager, as a software designer, etc., is to go and get out of the office, spend time in restaurants, talk to owners, talk to staff, talk to guests, sit and have lunch, watch how things happen in a restaurant.

00:10:32:22 - 00:10:47:12
Peter Doroughty
So you get a really good feel of what are the challenges that people are facing. And so we always talk about, okay, how many NIHDO visits did you do this month? You know, not enough, because we want our people who are thinking about these problems to be out in the field talking to our customers. And it's not just about customer relationship management.

00:10:47:12 - 00:11:09:16
Peter Doroughty
It's actually more on the software design side, our account manager and customer success, people do that as well. But I'm really talking about the software design side so we can understand that hey, a server and an owner don't want a phone between them in their face or in the guest. And so when we design our scan to pay functionality where we have the QR code on the table, well, one thing that super interesting though is you assume, okay, it came up during COVID.

00:11:09:16 - 00:11:30:15
Peter Doroughty
Yes. It's contactless payments. Sure. And that continues to this day. But one another thing that we know is we actually know that tips are actually higher on scan to pay on the QR code payments versus on the regular payments. So how do we use that? What we know that that excuse me, staff retention so we can turn around to the owner and say, hey, you can turnover 20% less staff this year.

00:11:30:15 - 00:11:51:09
Peter Doroughty
I'm making the 20% up. But this is the use case. If you use scan to pay, forget the operational efficiencies, you just have to hire less new staff and all of a sudden your staff become more experienced. And we all know post-COVID, one of the biggest challenges for restaurants, obviously, they have to hire the staff. But then the second side we talk about less is all the staff you have on the floor, way less experience than you had before COVID.

00:11:51:11 - 00:11:58:12
Peter Doroughty
And again, getting back to that experience thing, it's you're thinking through the whole problem, not just what does the thing my software do.

00:11:58:14 - 00:12:20:03
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I love that. And I think also coming out of COVID as humans, we at times forgot how to be human, right. We had to relearn how to integrate into society. I mean, we learn what is wait times look like, what is the restaurant experience look like, what is the travel experience look like? And I think with that comes also an this opportunity for us to reimagine that guest experience.

00:12:20:03 - 00:12:36:11
Rob Napoli
And it's a huge topic on this podcast, an episode that we recorded. It's a huge topic in the conversations I had every day. My wife is a designer for hotels, and their main thing is how do you not have when you walk into your typical check in desk, that person checking you in on a computer just like this?

00:12:36:11 - 00:12:52:00
Rob Napoli
Like how do you move technology from the sidelines? So it's a face to face conversation and then leveraging that type of stuff. And that's really interesting because it makes such a big thing when you're at this coffee shop. I mean, I live in New York City, right. So it's like I'm in and out. I want to be in and out quickly, right?

00:12:52:02 - 00:13:12:09
Rob Napoli
Boom, boom, tap to pay what I love about tap to pay. Is that also the tip I don't have to do math in my head. I can click a button, right. And it's like all those things that allow me to be more appreciative of the service I'm getting, but also reducing the time that I have to think in that moment of like taking a pen, what is 20% that whole process, right.

00:13:12:11 - 00:13:32:06
Rob Napoli
Absolutely and it's funny because all of these things are connected, right. It's the way the payments experience you create for guests in a restaurant. It matters to the experience, you know, And I think people go out to eat to have and, you know, obviously we focus on full service restaurants. That's really our mantra. That's the we focus on the experience of restaurants.

00:13:32:08 - 00:13:48:05
Peter Doroughty
People go for the good food, they go for the experience. But the part that people often forget is the staff. And the way the staff interact with you is a key part of that experience. And so we have to get you help. You get your menus right. We have to help you get to the payments experience, right. Because that's a key touch point with the guest.

00:13:48:07 - 00:14:06:18
Peter Doroughty
But we also have to help you get your staff touch points with your with your guests. Right. And so that can be coaching your staff through what menu items to actually sell the guest not only for a good experience, but also when we start getting into data and analytics, helping you suggest the right items that actually drive guest retention.

00:14:06:20 - 00:14:22:08
Peter Doroughty
I know as an example, I can tell a restaurant today, well, if you serve the fish instead of the salad, Rob is three times more likely to come back to your restaurant again. And that again also ties back to okay, well, I know who Rob is because he's used to the payments experience that we're providing, etc.

00:14:22:10 - 00:14:33:15
Peter Doroughty
But they're I'm driving excellence in the restaurant because they're designing our menus that bring us back. So they're more profitable because we know it's less expensive to retain a guest than find a new one again it's all connected.

00:14:33:17 - 00:14:52:05
Rob Napoli
It's amazing. And I love this idea. OmniBoost you know as data We love data. Yeah. And I was having an interesting conversation about a week ago about the amount of data that companies sit on that static and they don't know how to leverage it. So what is Lightspeed doing? Because you just got to use a great use case, reputation retention.

00:14:52:07 - 00:15:06:06
Rob Napoli
How are you building that into the thought process of everything else? How you connecting all of that so that you're giving also those quick service restaurants that those full service restaurants, all that data to allow those insights to be more efficient.

00:15:06:08 - 00:15:33:09
Peter Doroughty
So there's kind of like the standard answer, which is obviously in our product we've built reporting, but I'm not talking about, hey, the fish generates this much margin and this is how many you sell that's basically reporting every technology company on the planet is providing that. There's nothing special about that. What we're doing is, again, using data convergence, we're taking the data from the menu items because we own the POS, we run your POS, the inventory because you do that through Lightspeed and the payments.

00:15:33:11 - 00:15:52:05
Peter Doroughty
And one thing that's unique about payments is obviously it's a great experience for the guest, but it's also the only time where Lightspeed, the company, is interacting directly with the consumer, the guest in your restaurant versus it's always through you or your staff member otherwise. And because we're doing both now, we can actually say, okay, I know who this guest is.

00:15:52:07 - 00:16:15:17
Peter Doroughty
I can say, okay, I know how long it took them to order. I know if you're using scan to pay, you know, even if you're doing reorders, like, Oh, you ordered a beer or another beer, I can take all of that data and use insights against that to say, well, actually, when Rob comes to your restaurant next time, not only can I tell you to serve the fish versus the Caesar salad, I can also tell you that Rob likes the wine poured before the second course instead of the first course.

00:16:15:19 - 00:16:38:10
Peter Doroughty
And all of a sudden I can start coaching your staff on what the right experience is, not only just in general for your restaurant, but the experience that Rob is looking for in your restaurant. And that's only comes from having that whole ecosystem of data coming into Lightspeed and us doing our analysis there. And of course, we're now we're leading into A.I in generative A.I, but it's not just A.I., there's also a whole statistical model there.

00:16:38:10 - 00:17:09:22
Peter Doroughty
There's a lot of work there that's not just A.I., and we've been doing this. We started this work even before the rise know of gen AI, where we have real deep PhDs and statistics behind building these models here. And it's that is a real superpower of lightspeed that we are continuing to grow. And an example that, you know, is we have a magic menu quadrant report in our platform, which we call the Hidden gems, the Rising Stars, etc. And we can even tell you the menu items that maybe you don't sell a lot of generate a lot of margin, but actually bring guests back and you need to move that even in the way you

00:17:09:22 - 00:17:24:14
Peter Doroughty
Lay out the paper menu that you hand out to guests to make sure you start getting more people ordering this item that is high margin but you don't sell enough of. And then on the flip side, when you use basic reporting, it's like, oh, well, the Caesar salad generates $10 of margin versus the fish does $3 of margin.

00:17:24:16 - 00:17:40:11
Peter Doroughty
But again, going back to it, that's actually telling you the opposite thing because the fish are three times more likely to bring Rob back to your restaurant that goes back to that data and bring all these data sources together to provide insights and also specifically actionable insights for the restaurant. Yeah, that's what Lightspeed is doing that is unique.

00:17:40:13 - 00:17:59:08
Rob Napoli
And I think that's so cool because again, that example, right. Launch a valuable customer, right, versus the conclusion of a win today. I mean, you think about the way grocery stores, there's a lot of studies that are like grocery stores are laid out, right. It's all done by design to make you spend the most amount of time and money doing all the fresh stuff that gets you hungry.

00:17:59:08 - 00:18:18:06
Rob Napoli
You smell fresh food, your body reacts to it. You're going to buy more in the store. I think so many companies forget to leverage that. And I love that you talk about that coaching, because also understanding from the guest experience, table turnover, right. If you know that Rob system usually spends an hour and a half right, you can kind of manage those tables better.

00:18:18:06 - 00:18:33:10
Rob Napoli
And no one likes to go way back to told, hey, you know, your tables be ready in 20 minutes. 45 minutes later, you're still waiting for a table, right. Those are the things that make the guest experience out of sync. And so I love that you all are coaching that and building that. And with that deep thoughts behind this, the ethos of the company.

00:18:33:12 - 00:18:51:17
Peter Doroughty
It's been a large investment over many years to get there because, you know, I'm describing what we can do today but there's a lot of problems you have to solve along the way. A perfect example, the tip, the average American, the typical American has four credit cards. Well, what if you go to a restaurant, pay with one, and then you go again to that same restaurant and pay with a different one.

00:18:51:21 - 00:18:53:20
Peter Doroughty
How do I know it's the same person?

00:18:53:22 - 00:19:08:01
Rob Napoli
And you're being a partner to the restaurant, right. That's you could easily just have a Yeah, you can easily just have a solution like, Hey, here you go, pay. And that's like, now let us leverage what we do best and all these things to make you even better. Because if you're better, we're better together. That is serving your community.

00:19:08:01 - 00:19:26:02
Rob Napoli
And I think that is something that is so cool and lost on some people. When we think about SAS, the SAS world is like everything SAS and it's just layered on top of each other and we forget about what is necessary versus what is accessory and right. Doing these things make you so necessary to the ethos and ecosystems of the communities.

00:19:26:02 - 00:19:49:23
Rob Napoli
I think that's something I saw really highlighted at the Oxygen Summit. It was like something that was like a key glow away, like really cool to see how you engage yourselves into those communities. And I love that that idea of being out of the office reminds me of Howard Schultz when he started Starbucks and he went to Milan and spent six months in Milan having coffee to see those things and see what he thought was missing from that guest experience and was great about that guest experience.

00:19:49:23 - 00:19:52:08
Rob Napoli
And it's so cool to hear that.

00:19:52:10 - 00:20:07:01
Peter Doroughty
As you can hear from my voice, we're passionate about the restaurant. I love the restaurant business. It's tough to run a great restaurant it's tough, but when you do it right, it's something special. And I love that we work with tens of thousands of restaurants around the world that get to experience them all the time.

00:20:07:03 - 00:20:19:08
Peter Doroughty
And I get to see great restaurant experiences in a variety of great restaurant experiences and in technology company it's hard to be able to suit all these different use cases. But I think we're doing a pretty good job. It's what we do every day is pretty cool.

00:20:19:10 - 00:20:30:09
Rob Napoli
Yeah you can definitely tell you're so passionate. You can see your voice just kind of getting the excitement and the speed and everything. You're almost like a New Yorker in that regard where it just. Yeah, yeah. I mean

00:20:30:11 - 00:20:33:09
Peter Doroughty
I can talk about restaurants all day

00:20:33:11 - 00:20:55:13
Rob Napoli
I know if I could keep you all day away, but I know that I can't. But one of the things that you kind of highlighted as you look at 2024 and the tours and stuff, what are you most excited about that Lightspeed is like building and really bringing forward to in 2024 that you get to take to the world in the hospital space.

00:20:55:14 - 00:21:27:05
Peter Doroughty
Ohh, I could I can talk about that just for an hour, but if I boil it down to two things, really, I think the first is, and this is maybe a little bit cliche, but I think the power of gen A.I is going to bring itself to the restaurant world. And I think just something we've already released where today, if I'm a restaurant operating in Europe or I'm operating in any country, actually even say in the southern United States where I want to have everything and not multi-language like southern U.S., you go on in English and Spanish for all your menus, etc., or in Europe, you know, maybe seven languages.

00:21:27:07 - 00:21:44:03
Peter Doroughty
Well, today, as a restaurateur, if I wanted to do that for my online menu, etc., I would need to translate all those things. But what we've actually launched now with our new flagship is I can enter my menu once and then gen A.I will automatically do all the translations and have my menu in multiple languages.

00:21:44:05 - 00:22:05:15
Peter Doroughty
But we've gone further. It'll also, based on my description of it, make a guess as to the recipe. It'll make a guess as to the ingredients and also very importantly, the allergens. And then if we really want to go, we've built this, it'll actually generate a photo for you through gen AI for your online order. So you're not to take photography because surprisingly, getting photography done of your dishes for online ordering is relatively expensive.

00:22:05:17 - 00:22:19:11
Peter Doroughty
Actually, it takes a lot of work. And so what we've done is all of a sudden this process that might be, you know, couple of weeks to get a photographer in, you got to do a shooting and make all your dishes. And then everybody already knows about the world of ads where they fake the food, etc..

00:22:19:13 - 00:22:36:11
Peter Doroughty
But now we just say, great, this is a cheesecake boom. The AI will generate an image for you and then you can just correct it, but it'll tell you all the allergens, ingredients, etc. and then translate it to as many languages as you want. Again, going back to that labor savings time savings for the restaurant, your focus is on the experience rather than the entry.

00:22:36:13 - 00:22:57:18
Peter Doroughty
I think we've also started to look at back to that example of how do we coach a staff member on the floor to provide a great experience not only for this is what guests typically want in my restaurant, but we can also certainly this is what Rob wants from your restaurant. You know, even what we talked about before, about when to pour the wine or hey, Rob likes a longer service versus a shorter service, etc..

00:22:57:20 - 00:23:22:09
Peter Doroughty
So that that's the stuff that we're getting into now. I think on the flip side, there's a power less about the individual restaurant and more just that we can bring through our scale, which is there's no playbook really that exists of am I doing a good job, How is my restaurant performing compared to others? People say, Oh, world class, restaurant generates 20% margin.

00:23:22:11 - 00:23:46:08
Peter Doroughty
Well, is that the case for all types of restaurants? Is that the case in all geographies? And so I think what we are starting to look at as well of restaurants in the Northeast, in the United States or in Belgium, etc., what is a good margin, what's a good staff cost to sales ratio? And so we can start to coaching restaurants on really what are those metrics that they can pay attention to run a great business and then we can start giving them recommendations against that.

00:23:46:13 - 00:23:52:21
Peter Doroughty
So those are really the two things that we're focused on now. And then we're looking to bring more to in 2024 or 2025.

00:23:52:23 - 00:24:10:01
Rob Napoli
I love that. And I think you made a great point because if you go, sit in a restaurant in Italy where, if you want something, you have to call the waiter because they want to give you the time and space to have that conversation. Absolutely. Somewhere in New York City, high turnover and understanding. How do you how can you it?

00:24:10:03 - 00:24:27:07
Peter Doroughty
But I think actually sorry to interrupt that's a perfect example because in Italy, not only is there the cultural norm of, hey, we're going to just back off what this person had before our service. No problem. Have fun versus New York. Like turn it over quick. But I think there's also even financial metrics behind that.

00:24:27:09 - 00:24:51:03
Peter Doroughty
Labor costs in Europe are higher versus in New York. It's all tips, right. Like you're making 90% of your income from tips as a server. So the reality is, is you tend to have a higher staff to table ratio in the U.S. or Canada versus you do in Europe because labor costs are lower. So it's just is a financial reality of where the guest expectation and the kind of expenses also just aligned with the financial reality of that economic environment.

00:24:51:05 - 00:25:10:03
Peter Doroughty
And I do think what's interesting, just more talking about the future, I do think we are going to see that guest experience make its way to the U.S. as labor costs rise more dramatically in the U.S. versus in Europe. The U.S. dining experience and fine dining table service restaurants will look more like Europe versus the other way around because of the lift in labor costs.

00:25:10:06 - 00:25:27:16
Peter Doroughty
But it's interesting, you know, even you picked up on that, that economic reality aligns with what guests see. But that's where we can coach you and say, hey, well, you're an Italian restaurant in Italy. This is your labor input. This is what you should be doing versus in the U.S.. Hey, but actually your labor costs are well below benchmark.

00:25:27:18 - 00:25:30:17
Peter Doroughty
And so we can start coaching people through those things.

00:25:30:19 - 00:25:48:22
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I know. I love it and I use experience. I use that example because I moved to Italy for the first time. I was going to my first sit down dinner and I finished my drink and I was like, why is it and I didn't know what to do? And so funny because I called it like, Hey, can I get another soda?

00:25:49:00 - 00:25:58:22
Rob Napoli
And they're like, Yeah, sure. And I was like, This is weird to me because usually the minute my drink is in the States, somebody is bringing me a fresh soda. Yeah, for sure. And it was funny, interesting things.

00:25:59:00 - 00:26:13:23
Peter Doroughty
And you know, this goes to a cultural background to where I'm from in Canada we have where the French part of Canada, the culture is very much the European dining culture. It's normal to go for dinner and it's 5 hours, you know, maybe not five, but four, 4 hours. But it's also, you know, I'm used to that.

00:26:13:23 - 00:26:27:08
Peter Doroughty
Okay, You have to call the waiter over for another drink. But, you know, when I go for a meal in the U.S. now, I know obviously I've been doing this in the U.S. for a long time, but it's like, oh, would my plate go someone just like, well, I wasn't really finished yet

00:26:27:10 - 00:26:34:07
Peter Doroughty
But you know what? That's driven. That's the culture expectation, but it's actually driven by the economic realities of where you're from.

00:26:34:09 - 00:26:49:17
Rob Napoli
It's just really having my data. Yeah. Having that data to understand that and better coach restaurant tries to maximize that and leverage that. And it's to me it's I think super cool And I love because being in New York we have a lot of European dining experiences here as well. So I love that I get to experience that still.

00:26:49:17 - 00:27:08:03
Rob Napoli
And do I get to go back and forth, some of you to Europe quite often with headquarters and the Netherlands. So I get to go experience that a lot and it's super fun and super cool to see how you all think about that from a global perspective. it's easy to think about knowing the American market and being such a big market.

00:27:08:03 - 00:27:25:13
Rob Napoli
You forget about your global business and understanding those things and creating technology that ties it all together. It makes it all. One cohesion thing is really cool to me. Yeah, absolutely. I want to use this opportunity to kind of slide over to. So that used to do and I think is a big part of Lightspeed ethos.

00:27:25:15 - 00:27:46:19
Rob Napoli
Considering that we did the Oxygen Summit, it was for your partners and customers and you are part of building the partnership. What is the partner channel mean to Lightspeed and why is that such an important piece and you have such a great team that run that and I know you're passionate about the partner channel, so talk about your partners and in the strategy of how to build such a great ecosystem around Lightspeed.

00:27:46:20 - 00:28:09:08
Peter Doroughty
So I'll answer the question, but I won't take the long way there because I think you have to almost step back as to why we've made that investment. Lightspeed is we're passion about restaurants. We care about technology and the impact it has on restaurant experiences and people. But we are also a business. And when I think about how do you succeed in the restaurant world as a software provider to the restaurant world.

00:28:09:10 - 00:28:27:18
Peter Doroughty
And if we truly believe in the power of data as a key selling point as to why a restaurant should use Lightspeed, because we can help them grow, well, the first step there is making sure you have all the data to work on. And so obviously Lightspeed is we have a tremendous product suite. We have POS payments, online ordering insights, etc.

00:28:27:21 - 00:28:50:04
Peter Doroughty
We're producing a ton of data, but we're not the only touchpoint that a consumer diner has with a restaurant. It could be an open table recipe. You know, if you're in Germany or L.A. or, any other or Lafayette in France, there's that. But what if maybe there's a waitlist software? What if there's a staff management software that Lightspeed doesn't necessarily do today.

00:28:50:06 - 00:29:07:08
Peter Doroughty
There could be a whole well, we're not the accounting software also. So we integrate with the accounting software. So there's a lot of stuff that we can pull in. And, obviously OmniBoost as a partner there be key, call it the center of many of the data pipes that are coming into lightspeed.

00:29:07:10 - 00:29:31:05
Peter Doroughty
And so to be able to essentially build on our value pop and our mission of what how do we want to help restaurants succeed, we need to have as much data in our in our system as possible to make great recommendations and provide recommendations. And so how do you do that? Well, you need to have a strong partner network because, OmniBoost and Lightspeed, there has to be a start of the relationships to people have to talk to and say, hey, we want to work together.

00:29:31:06 - 00:29:44:09
Peter Doroughty
And so to do that requires people who are going out there and pounding the pavement saying, hey, here's the companies out there that we want to work with because they're the best in their business and we have to convince each other that we want to work together because half the job of a partnership team is not convinced.

00:29:44:09 - 00:30:12:15
Peter Doroughty
And yet the people inside the company, it's convincing the people in the company that this is somebody we want to work with. And so that is why it's so important to have a strong ecosystem. And so how do you get to an ecosystem is you need a strong partnerships team. And so there when I moved into partnerships, this is well before COVID, right before our IPO, we had a partner program, but it was really call it a channel sales program and it wasn't we hadn't invested in really materially for quite a while.

00:30:12:17 - 00:30:26:11
Peter Doroughty
And so I you know, one of the first things I said is what we need to move from a world of just saying, hey, here's some channel resellers to saying, hey, we need a vibrant tech ecosystem that has a it's part of our value problems, our product to get that data. But also, frankly, our customers want to use these other products.

00:30:26:16 - 00:30:40:22
Peter Doroughty
And so that's when we started to really build out this team. And then you just start looking at, okay, how do you structure great partnerships team? You need people who are out looking for new business, new partnerships, you need people who manage existing relationships, you need technical people that just gets into the structure of how to run a partnerships team.

00:30:40:23 - 00:30:52:23
Peter Doroughty
But from the get go, we prioritize partnerships. So we knew as a key part of our story, a key part of how we provided a ton of value to our customers and then a little bit of magic from the leader of the team and you get there.

00:30:53:01 - 00:31:18:09
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I love that. And it was something that was very apparent when we were there and just how meaningful those relationships are, but also how dynamic. And actually, when you think of the word partner and what a true partnership is, I think that was exemplified in oxygen. So I know you had a big hand and I was like to hear that kind of like that vision of partnerships and what that means to the ecosystem.

00:31:18:14 - 00:31:45:12
Peter Doroughty
When we talk about the Oxygen Summit, that is a killer once a year event that we do. And I'd love to do more than once a year, but just the logistics that go into it sometimes, which is impossible, crazy. But for all of our sanity. But when you think about it, the key to a great partner ecosystem and customer ecosystem and I love this year that we had customers there too, because especially as our customers grow their, they're getting to the size where they are partners to us, not just customers.

00:31:45:14 - 00:32:02:03
Peter Doroughty
But it's not just about getting a partnership and speeding up the relationship. It's about how do you continue a relationship and how do you continue to grow it? Because just like Lightspeed, we're building new software, building new functionalities, we're going to do new things. All of our partners are doing the same thing. So how do we keep in touch with each other?

00:32:02:03 - 00:32:15:15
Peter Doroughty
How do we understand the objectives, both sides of the organization? What is the new stuff that both sides are doing? Hey Lightspeed doing this new thing. Hey, how do we expand our relationship around this and vice versa. Hey, OmniBoost is doing this new thing. How do we make sure we take advantage of it or how do we help support them to grow there?

00:32:15:17 - 00:32:34:16
Peter Doroughty
And that's where you not only you need to find new partners, you need to grow the existing relationships. And actually as your ecosystem gets bigger, that of the growth of the existing partners actually has a bigger impact on finding new partners. And obviously you saw the size of the event. It's a pretty meaningful ecosystem and that is through the hard work of those partner teams who are doing a great job.

00:32:34:18 - 00:32:51:11
Rob Napoli
Yeah, definitely. And I'll echo that. I mean, our team, I was just in London the other day and got a chance to sit down with your team and it was just amazing to get to see that office. I know our lead on the like Lightspeed side from OmniBoost side that's been I think now four different offices.

00:32:51:11 - 00:33:07:11
Rob Napoli
And so getting to see all the different offices and the teams and so it's a really big deal that you all are always so hospitable and hosting us and letting us come in and have a day and meet everybody and build those I think it's really easy to be, hey, let's just have a Zoom call. It's different when you say, Hey, come on, come on in

00:33:07:11 - 00:33:17:01
Rob Napoli
It's like, come join us, let's take you out or do these things. And I think your team does a great job of that. So I want to you that and really give that restaurant people

00:33:17:03 - 00:33:23:02
Peter Doroughty
We're restaurant people, even the retail teams.

00:33:23:04 - 00:33:44:12
Rob Napoli
So what are some of the things and we've talked a little about generative A.I the stuff we are doing. But what are the trends that you see for the future of especially your hospitality or the restaurant industry that you're keeping a close eye on, not just 2024 but like we think 25 and 26. So that's those things that you're kind of maybe looking at and prepping for as you're building for today and tomorrow.

00:33:44:14 - 00:34:01:07
Peter Doroughty
So actually I'm even going to take a step back. I think 2022 was the year where we got back to normal in the restaurant industry, sort of where everybody was like, okay, my restaurants fully open now. No, open, closed, open, closed. Now I just need to get back to having full staff. And the number one topic everyone is talking about is how do I hire more staff?

00:34:01:07 - 00:34:20:03
Peter Doroughty
I need better pay and need better benefits. I was 2022. 2023 was the first full year of call it post-COVID, first full year, which is crazy to talk about now at the end of the year, but it's just been one like it's the only full year we've had, right? 2022 is kind of half half. And so 2023 was kind of getting our sea legs back.

00:34:20:07 - 00:34:40:04
Peter Doroughty
We talked a little bit before of, yeah, I was able to bring my staff back or bring new staff back, but now I had to train them and to really get a solid staff member ramped and get them really productive. And creating great experiences doesn't happen in 30 days. It takes months, Right? Some of these to work for you too, for a long time, especially in a high end restaurant with high expectations.

00:34:40:06 - 00:35:03:17
Peter Doroughty
So that was kind of 2023, if I think about it from the restaurateurs point of view. And now when I think about 2024, I've kind of got past the getting my staff back to where they were pre-COVID 2024 is really starting to be investigating new concepts, getting back to expanding my menu again because everybody shrunk their menus to right, expanding my menus again, but then also even getting to some of the stuff we talked about before.

00:35:03:19 - 00:35:21:19
Peter Doroughty
As I grow and I get back into growth as a restaurant operator, where do I spend my money? How do I do it in the right way? Because even though it's been the full year of call it normal, a lot of them might still be carrying debt that they picked up during COVID. And so I have to be careful with the way I invest I have to be super thoughtful about what I'm going to do.

00:35:21:21 - 00:35:41:08
Peter Doroughty
And so I think that's why we launched Lightspeed Capital, because we have restaurateurs who are saying, my fridge just broke and I don't have any cushion in my bank account anymore. And so we can get money in bank account the next day to help them. But also we're starting to see people hey, Now I'm getting back into opening a second, third, fourth, fifth restaurant and I need cash right away and access to capital to do that.

00:35:41:10 - 00:35:56:17
Peter Doroughty
So we're starting to see that happening in which is exciting. And I think we as we think about 2024, it's really the it's going to be the year of getting back to growth and real growth. I think 2023 we saw that, we've seen it through the year of, some of the stats from the National Restaurant Association, etc..

00:35:56:17 - 00:36:18:17
Peter Doroughty
People are dining out. But I think that's almost just paying off the debt from COVID. Now, 2024 is really when the industry starts to grow again, which I'm very excited about. And as a technology provider, it's about how do you help these restaurateurs make great decisions when they start to invest again? And we talked about, you know, great customer experiences, access to capital, how do I invest my money, Where do I build my menus?

00:36:18:17 - 00:36:36:12
Peter Doroughty
What do I serve in my restaurant and how do I build great guest experiences? And then there's tech available there. It's gen A.I is going to help with that. It's going to be a better driver routing even for delivery businesses. There's all sorts of tech that's going to come into it, but I think it's really getting back to a growth mindset in the restaurant industry, which is very exciting.

00:36:36:14 - 00:36:45:11
Rob Napoli
That is super exciting. And I love when you talk about all this, like the tech that that's going to help do that during the day. It's still people serving people.

00:36:45:11 - 00:36:53:14
Peter Doroughty
It’s people serving that when you boil down a restaurant, it's people serving people. Everything else is just around that.

00:36:53:16 - 00:37:16:19
Rob Napoli
Yeah, and that's what's beautiful. I think seeing that again, that growth mindset and seeing what's going to come, I'm really excited for the opportunities that are going to be there for growth, for new technology to open up more human experiences. And that to me is what really excites me. That's why this podcast is so special to me is to hear though, some of the things that we see, see those things happening and being prepared for that in 2024 and beyond.

00:37:16:19 - 00:37:37:13
Rob Napoli
So, I know that we're getting close to time and I know you and I could talk for days. I'm sure of it. But I do appreciate time. Appreciate your insights. I was out there listening how they how they get involved, how they follow along with your journey, Lightspeed journey. How do I learn more about what you are building over at Lightspeed?

00:37:37:15 - 00:37:56:07
Peter Doroughty
Well, first and foremost, lightspeedhq.com. We're releasing tons of great stuff on a product story. I think even if you just look, subscribe to our newsroom. We just recently put up some stats actually just before the New Year about tipping practices leading into Christmas and the holidays were obviously a three hour discussion. We're big data centric company.

00:37:56:09 - 00:38:15:07
Peter Doroughty
We also did a great story around stats and data leading up to Halloween and Thanksgiving. So we're always sharing really interesting stats and it gets back to this ethos of helping restauranteurs understand what's good and what's not. And so sharing data there. So subscribe because you can listen there and then of course, follow us on LinkedIn. We're always putting some great stories out on LinkedIn as well.

00:38:15:08 - 00:38:32:14
Rob Napoli
So I'll make sure to have both of those links in the show notes so you can click on, follow along and get involved. Peter, thank you so much for your time, your energy, your insights and I'm sure I'll be seeing you again soon in some way, shape or form through events or something. So I appreciate it.

00:38:32:16 - 00:38:34:05
Peter Doroughty
Thanks for having me, Rob.

00:38:34:07 - 00:38:49:07
Rob Napoli
You bet. And although out there listening, thank you so much for being a listener to hospitable be a tier one like subscribe rate review do all those things so I can bring on more guests. And if you have great ideas or people actually on how to get in touch with me, hit us up. Thank you all for listening.