Drip Labs, which took part in the Roux Institute’s startup supporting Founder Residency program, aims to address the issues plaguing Portland, Maine’s restaurant and service industries.
Portland, Maine, is known for a vibrant, robust restaurant scene that exceeds what most cities of its size usually have. With more than 800 eateries in the city, there is no shortage of options for customers –– but the same goes for workers.
Like in many cities, Portland’s service industry has a staff retention issue, one that’s amplified because of the number of businesses in Portland. However, one startup is trying to help businesses by helping their employees.
Drip Labs is creating a loyalty rewards program not for customers but for Portland’s many service industry workers. With support from the Roux Institute’s Founder Residency program, co-founders Frank Chen and Rob O’Toole hope Drip Labs is a win-win-win for workers, businesses and customers.
“The service industry worker is such an interesting, important part of our economy that often gets overlooked,” Chen says. “A lot of restaurant technology either focuses on the consumer experience … or they focus on the restaurant owner and how to make their lives more efficient. … We think the wedge of offering benefits to a variety of people who want to support service workers is our first step.”
Drip Labs is part of the most recent cohort from the Roux’s Founder Residency, a program that provides funding, mentorship and access to talented students through the co-op program for startups to build and grow their businesses. Chen says the program was invaluable for getting Drip Labs to the point where it’s piloting its app in places like Two Fat Cats Bakery and Bissell Brothers, a local brewery.
“Portland, Maine, it’s a pretty small town, and if you want to do entrepreneurship in Portland, Maine, all roads lead to the Roux Institute,” Chen says. “All the mini touchpoints here on the people that we’ve worked with, from mentorship to the people working on the team, we wouldn’t be where we’re at without being at the Roux.”
Coming into the program, Chen and O’Toole, who met while working for restaurant software company Toast, thought Drip Labs would be more of a digital punch card for customers to use at their favorite local businesses. However, after talking with local restaurateurs and the Roux’s network of Maine entrepreneurs, they realized customer loyalty wasn’t the real issue for businesses.
“It was like a vitamin, it wasn’t really a painkiller,” Chen explains. “Customer loyalty is built on staff relationships. If you’re not able to keep staff there longer for three months and you’re always rotating staff, there’s always a new face when you walk in the door, you don’t have the opportunity to build that customer loyalty with your customers.”
Employees who work at participating businesses get access to certain perks, such as discounts at the place they work. However, they can also get discounts at other businesses using the app. The idea is they can go to local restaurants, salons or even yoga studios, any business that’s taking part in the program, tap their phone at the payment kiosk to prove their employment and reap the benefits.
“It’s really hard for restaurants to offer health insurance or your traditional corporate benefits because it’s very expensive for them,” Chen says. “But if we can offer perks for the owners to give to their staff for choosing to work at my place rather than another place, it just acts as another perk that hopefully not only attracts workers to you but helps retain you for longer.”
One of Chen’s long-term goals is to fully leverage this idea so that even if you aren’t a service industry worker, you can benefit from Drip Labs.
“Anyone can step in and tap this [kiosk]; I think it’s a question of what experience do we unlock for you,” Chen says. “Are you a customer? Are you an employee? For the coffee shop here by [the Roux Institute], are you a Northeastern student or employee? If you are, we might unlock some discount for you there.”
At the core of Drip Labs is the idea that Portland’s service industry workers deserve more. Helping ensure they get more will only benefit businesses and, in turn, customers in the long run, Chen says.
“I’m an underdog guy,” Chen says. “Small business owners are entrepreneurs as well, so as an entrepreneur, fighting for the entrepreneur is an amazing feeling.”