Gizmodo’s Developers Cubed series offers a behind the scenes look into Australia’s up and coming dev scene. This week: Greg Taylor from Clipp explains how paying bar tabs can get a lot easier with the right app.
Who are you and where do you work?
I’m Greg Taylor, and I’m the creator of a new app called Clipp. It enables customers to open, view and pay their bar tab or restaurant bill directly from their smartphone.
Why do we know you? What have you created?
I created the eCoffeeCard app back in 2011. It has grown quite quickly; it’s used in 1600 cafes by 200,000 users across Australia, NZ and the UK.
What platforms do you develop for?
All of them! iOS, BlackBerry 10, Windows and Android.
What are you working on right now?
Clipp! It launches next week. We have partnered with five of the biggest point-of-sale companies to integrate Clipp with their systems which enables customers to open, view, share and pay their bar tab or restaurant bills from their phone. Consumers earn loyalty points each time they pay their bill with Clipp. It’s much easier and less risky than leaving a card behind the bar.
What do you think about the rise and rise of App Stores? How has it influenced your titles?
It has changed distribution as we know it forever and enables platforms to carry much richer content without having to develop it themselves. It has also created an entire industry overnight; the app store is only 5 years old! The competition is also fierce, so it has made us build better products and continual evolve our products. You cannot sit on your hands in this space.
What’s your favourite app that you didn’t create?
Square. It transformed an industry and paved the way for mobile payments.
What phone do you use? Why?
I am using the BlackBerry Z10 — we developed Clipp on the platform as it’s perfectly suited to the corporate market and the platform is great. I particularly like the Hub feature.
What advice do you have for budding Aussie developers out there?
Surround yourself with talented people! Also, it’s always better to have a small percentage of something big than a big percentage of something small.