What if the key to better restaurant performance isn’t asking hourly employees to “think like owners,” but actually paying them like owners?

In this episode of the ChatGTM Podcast, Michael Beck and Chad Horn sit down with Peter Riggs, Founder of WaveWage, to explore what happens when frontline restaurant employees share in the upside they help create.

Peter’s idea started with a moment almost every operator will recognize. About 30 minutes before closing, he watched a restaurant employee turn away customers who were ready to spend money. For the employee, another table meant more work. For the operator, it meant lost revenue and potentially a lost customer.

Peter’s question was simple: What if the employee actually benefited from that sale?

That became the foundation for WaveWage, a performance-pay platform designed to connect hourly employees with measurable sales performance.

Peter shares how incentives can change frontline behavior, how restaurants can reward incremental revenue without destroying margins, and why the last hour of business could potentially become one of the most profitable hours of the day.

We also get into restaurant technology itself, including why great software still fails inside restaurants, how WaveWage approaches integrations and gamification, and what technology founders consistently misunderstand about operators.

One of Peter’s best observations:

“Just because your tech works doesn’t mean we can put it to work.”

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to ChatGTM
03:09 Meet Peter Riggs
04:28 From restaurant operator to technology founder
07:42 The truth about restaurant employee engagement
10:16 What is WaveWage?
11:01 The restaurant moment that sparked the idea
14:34 The dreaded last-minute customer
15:11 Incentivizing the entire restaurant team
17:03 Finding hidden performance gaps
19:07 Why nobody built WaveWage before
21:10 Making incentives visible and engaging
22:45 Employee badges, recognition and portable reputation
25:11 Avoiding unintended consequences
25:44 AI-generated incentive rules and confidence scores
28:36 Can employees change restaurant operating hours?
29:27 How do you prove an incentive actually works?
32:01 Can employees make more while restaurants make more?
35:13 POS, payroll and restaurant-tech integrations
36:58 What restaurant-tech companies misunderstand
40:06 What Peter now understands about tech founders
41:29 Selling WaveWage to his toughest critic: himself
42:27 Rapid Fire
43:20 Customers walking in two minutes before closing
44:08 The restaurant metric operators aren't measuring
44:33 What restaurant work needs to fix
45:31 Closing thoughts and what comes next

Learn more about WaveWage:
https://wavewage.com

Peter Riggs on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-riggs-495b274/

If conversations like this get your gears turning, subscribe to the ChatGTM Podcast on YouTube and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

What do you think: Should hourly restaurant employees share directly in the upside when they help generate incremental revenue?

#PayThemLikeOwners #PeterRiggs #WaveWage #RestaurantEmployees #RestaurantPerformance #RestaurantTechnology #ChatGTM

What if high performance isn’t about working harder, but learning to work deeper?

Bestselling author, entrepreneur and leadership speaker Ty Bennett joins Michael Beck and Chad Horn on ChatGTM S2 E46 to unpack what actually drives sustainable high performance.

We first met Ty at Prosper Accelerate, where he turned his keynote into an experience by bringing his sons on stage to tackle a Ninja Warrior obstacle course. It became a live lesson in preparation, resilience, adaptability, trust and helping people accomplish things they didn’t think were possible. chad-ty-beck

Now Ty takes us inside the research behind his new book, Redefining High Performance. His research identified five key drivers: preparation, consistency, adaptability, motivation and connection.

One of the biggest takeaways challenges hustle culture: sustainable high performance has more to do with working deeper than simply working harder. chad-ty-beck

We also get into fear of failure, comparison, feedback, burnout, trust, parenting, hospitality leadership and why consistency beats occasional intensity.

Then we turn to AI. Ty believes that as AI makes information and good copy easier to create, human story, empathy and genuine connection become even more valuable. chad-ty-beck

And if you’re heading to Prosper Accelerate, this conversation gives you a taste of the energy and thinking Ty brings to the stage.

CONNECT WITH TY
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tybennett
Redefining High Performance: https://tybennett.com/product/redefining-high-performance/
Website: https://tybennett.com/

CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome to ChatGTM
00:38 Meeting Ty at Prosper Accelerate
01:13 The Ninja Warrior Keynote
02:34 Welcome Ty Bennett
03:42 How Ninja Warrior Took Over the Bennett Family
05:05 Turning a Speech Into an Experience
05:49 Performing Under Pressure
06:25 Relaxed Intensity
07:44 Competing Without Comparison
08:25 When One Brother Gets the Opportunity
10:23 Leadership Lessons From Family
11:33 Redefining High Performance
15:38 What Creates a High Performer?
16:12 The Research Behind High Performance
17:00 The 5 Drivers of High Performance
18:44 Preparation Changes Everything
20:23 Where Real Confidence Comes From
20:48 High Performance Without Burnout
21:32 Work Deeper, Not Harder
22:42 Health, Recovery & Performance
24:48 Why Hospitality Produces Great Leaders
25:16 We’re All in the People Business
26:30 Empathic Drive
27:37 Why High Performers Plateau
28:16 The 3 Barriers to High Performance
29:42 How We Get in Our Own Way
30:17 Trust Is the Currency of Leadership
31:19 How Leaders Earn Trust
32:10 Leadership Through Example
33:35 Rebuilding Lost Trust
34:34 Escaping the Failure Factory
34:55 Failure Is Part of Your Best Work
35:51 Consistency Beats Intensity
37:43 Success Begets Success
38:16 Does Work-Life Balance Exist?
41:21 AI & High Performance
41:33 Why AI Makes Human Stories More Valuable
43:20 Empathy in an AI-Driven World
43:43 Confident Curiosity
44:42 Rapid Fire
46:18 One Word for Great Leadership
46:26 Great Leaders Make People Feel Important
46:34 The Best Stories Begin With Connection
46:36 Closing Thoughts & Prosper Accelerate
48:19 Wrap

Are you working harder, or have you learned how to work deeper?

▶️ Subscribe to ChatGTM for conversations with the people building what’s next in leadership, hospitality, technology, AI and GTM.

#ChatGTM #TyBennett #ProsperAccelerate #HighPerformance #Leadership #AI

Restaurant technology doesn't fail in isolation. When one part of the ecosystem breaks, the operator feels all of it.

Toby Malbec, one of the restaurant industry's most respected technology leaders, joins Michael Beck and Chad Horn on the ChatGTM Podcast to talk about partnerships, trust, restaurant technology ecosystems and why vendors need to stop making operators referee their problems.

After decades advising and leading technology strategy for brands including Subway and Church's Texas Chicken, Toby now serves as VP of Partnerships at Qu, where he's bringing an operator-first perspective to the vendor side of the table.

His philosophy is simple: restaurant managers aren't IT integrators. When POS, payments, loyalty, inventory, digital ordering or another system fails, operators shouldn't have to figure out whose fault it is.

The partners should.

Toby calls it removing the F-word: friction.

The conversation explores what separates an integration from a true partnership, why relationships still matter in technology buying, what startups get wrong when approaching enterprise partners, and why best-of-breed technology only works when vendors take shared responsibility for the operator experience.

And when asked who wins the future of restaurant technology, Toby's answer cuts through the AI noise:

“Embrace humanity and leverage AI where applicable.”

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to ChatGTM
01:24 Meet Toby Malbec
02:45 Toby's Move From Church's to Qu
04:49 Seeing Restaurant Tech From Both Sides
06:44 Who Owns the Problem When Tech Breaks?
07:07 Stop Making Operators Referee Vendors
08:12 Removing the F-Word: Friction
08:55 Why Qu Invested in Partnerships
11:29 Partnerships Are Built Between People
14:40 Getting Vendors to Play Together
17:12 When the Operator Pays for Bad Partnerships
18:39 Prioritizing the Restaurant Tech Ecosystem
20:11 Consulting Without Having a Dog in the Hunt
20:57 What Startups Get Wrong Approaching Qu
21:56 Finding the Right Integration Partners
22:26 Could Qu Become a Restaurant Tech Incubator?
23:43 Building a Partnership Mindset Across Qu
24:06 Balancing Profit With the Long Game
26:05 Best-of-Breed Without the Headaches
26:19 Are RFPs Still Working?
27:00 Capabilities Get You In. Relationships Matter.
27:58 Why Buying Restaurant Tech Isn't Just About Price
29:28 How Do You Measure Partnership Success?
31:00 When the Market Says a Partnership Isn't Working
31:12 Bringing Consulting Into Partnerships
32:19 Why Toby Chose Qu
32:45 Why Qu Is at an Inflection Point
34:22 A-Players Still Have to Fit Together
34:39 Rapid Fire With Toby
34:53 One Quality Every Great Partner Needs
34:54 Handshake or Contract?
34:59 What Instantly Earns or Loses Trust?
35:15 A Restaurant Brand Toby Admires
35:29 Why Toby Has a “Crush” on P. Terry's
36:11 The Future of Restaurant Technology
36:32 Why ChatGTM Wanted This Conversation
37:02 Giving Back to the Restaurant Industry
37:29 Closing Thoughts
38:49 Operators Rule

Where should responsibility fall when multiple technology vendors are involved and something breaks? Tell us in the comments.

▶️ Subscribe to ChatGTM for conversations with the operators, founders and technologists building what's next in restaurants, hospitality, technology, AI and GTM.

Know What's Next.

#ChatGTM #RestaurantTechnology #RestaurantTech #HospitalityTechnology #RestaurantIndustry #StrategicPartnerships #RestaurantOperations #AI #IncTankGTM