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Hospo owner turns tech entrepreneur
Kiwi company Bustle was founded just over ten years ago in a Wellington coffee shop and cocktail bar. The cloud-based point of sale system was designed to make life easier for hospitality businesses, a vision Founder Jonny McKenzie could only dream of when he owned his own establishments.
As a co-owner of three Wellington bars and a cinema, Jonny wanted the option to track the sales performance of his establishments when he wasn’t there, but discovered that there wasn’t any technology designed to do this.
“As an co-owner operator, the few days I couldn’t be on site I would be nervous about my businesses, wondering how they were going. I’d send a text to someone in my team asking ‘how is it going, what’s happening?’ and they’d often reply ‘good’ – but it didn’t give me the insight I needed on the sales. I searched for apps and technology that could track this for me, but it was all either too big, too corporate or too archaic.”
It wasn’t until Jonny attended a hospitality networking event and met individuals interested in developing a coffee ordering app that he realised there could be real demand for an all-encompassing hospitality system.
“We had coffee and a few more conversations, and they introduced me to Vaughan, the owner of the retail POS system Vend. We discussed collaborating to bring this idea to life for the hospitality industry. Vaughan loved the concept, and soon after, Bustle was born.”
For Jonny, the human element in the technology was paramount. Having been on the other side when till systems had technical issues, he wanted his team to have worked in the industry themselves so they could wholeheartedly understand their customers’ pain points.
“I’ve often experienced the frustration of waiting for a tech company to call back during a busy night when the till system goes down. Our priority is to have a team with a hospitality background who can communicate empathetically with our customers, understand their challenges, and promptly resolve issues. It’s Murphy’s law that tech fails in high-stress situations, so we emphasise we’re not just a tech company – we’re a hospitality company serving hospitality people.”
As Bustle gained momentum, Jonny decided to sell his bars and cinema to focus on it full time and hire a dedicated team. Soon they were growing their customer base nationwide and were eyeing the Australian market. Jonny moved to Melbourne preparing for an offshore launch when Covid hit and the hospitality industry came to a crashing halt. However this period provided Bustle with a unique opportunity to implement a click-and-collect solution called Regulr, leading to a surge in system downloads.
“All you needed was Covid to come along to stop people talking to each other face-to-face and we went from 500 downloads to over 150,000 downloads in four to five days, and went from around five cafes using Regulr to 800 cafes.”
One of the biggest challenges in Bustle’s journey has been marketing the platform and navigating the ever-changing technology landscape, especially without prior experience in the software industry.
“In hospitality, I took for granted that my venues naturally received publicity because we focused on good food and service, which people then talked about and recommended to others. In software, making a good product isn’t enough – you have to put a lot of effort into marketing, constantly telling your story, explaining why you exist, what makes you different, and how you can help people. Achieving that level of engagement is tricky. Another challenge is keeping up with endless tech improvements and the immense work required to make even a single button function perfectly for everyone.”
Jonny and his team had an itch to expand into other markets but had to wait until the pandemic eased off in 2022 before they could put that dream into reality. Thanks to connections made through Kea, Jonny embarked on a hospitality tour through the UK visiting 300 venues throughout seven cities in five days to get a gauge on whether Bustle would be a viable product.
“I started in London and went all the way up to Glasgow and Edinburgh catching trains and jumping off to spend an hour or so in each town. I was very fortunate that all the people I needed to talk to about my product were in cafes so I could easily walk in and have a chat – it wasn’t like I had to book in meetings. It gave us so much more credibility to know what our opportunity was in-market.”
These valuable conversations enabled Bustle to enter the UK market, and Jonny stresses that Bustle wouldn’t be where it is today if he hadn’t asked for help.
“It’s a learning journey and it’s ok when you start a business to have no idea what you’re doing. We all have to learn to walk and speak. The best thing you can do is reach out to people and ask for their advice – I’m still trying to improve on that even now, 12 years later. People forget how fortunate we are that Kiwi love helping each other, and that’s why Kea is such a success.”
Jonny’s advice for other Kiwi businesses looking to expand is to embrace the learning journey and to not be afraid of the idea of starting from scratch.
“Everything you thought about growing in a market is probably going to be different for this new market you’re looking into. Entering any new market is a big investment and will take twice, if not three times longer than you expect. We all say ‘no it won’t’, and then we experience it ourselves. You need to plan how you start all over again, be confident in your actions, and not let the feeling of starting from scratch hinder your growth.”
Learn more about Bustle here www.heybustle.com
