[Disclosure: I work for TabbedOut] Thanks martin for the mention! We’ve spent a lot of time working on this problem space. Ultimately, there are a few differe

[Disclosure: I work for TabbedOut] Thanks martin for the mention! We’ve spent a lot of time working on this problem space. Ultimately, there are a few different takes on solutions and different ones make more sense in certain situations. The IRL vending machine scenario outlined in the original article may make sense in some counter service places, but far less in a white tablecloth restaurant situation. While on the surface it may seem like it is not a hard technical problem, it can be. Two approaches to solving the problem include writing middleware integrations for incumbent point of sale software (eg. TabbedOut) or write the point of sale software yourself (eg. Square). Both can have hurdles to overcome on the technical side as well as the human side. So some of the obstacles in place are: is there an existing point of sale? Would the restaurant require something more powerful than an old school cash register? Who should be processing the credit cards? How quick does fund settlement take place? How much disruption of the normal business process is acceptable (fix things, but don’t make a server’s life more difficult)? On another note, from the end of the article where Nick mentions that he would be happy paying an extra 10% tip, that seems like a nice gesture, but in practice that isn’t a common mindset from the consumer. When TabbedOut launched, there was a $0.99 service charge for tabs opened with the app. Overall, the concept of making the consumer pay for the service was not very well received. We’re constantly working on improving our solution and would welcome any feedback. Oh, we’re also hiring engineers if this sounds like a problem anyone would like to help solve [careers@tabbedout.com].