A Cornell professor explained that if one restaurant shows tax-inclusive prices but competitors don't, it will appear more expensive and lose customers — a classic collective action problem.
Where this was said
At 5:04 · chapter starts 4:16
The fix to Bisaha's grievance comes in the form of handheld payment devices — the kind travelers to Europe or Australia have seen for years. Steven Bisaha introduces Miguel Aguilar, his server at a Jersey City restaurant, who describes life before and after. [1] — Miguel Aguilar "The minute we got these, we could take 4, 5, 6 tables outside, not worry about having to run in for every single order. And it nearly halve…" 05:09 Before: everything took forever, constant trips in and out. After: four, five, six outdoor tables managed without running inside, and service time nearly halved. Darian Woods notes he's seen these devices increasingly in Chicago and appreciates how easily they split checks. The devices come largely from a company called Toast, and Bisaha notes that restaurant inertia — plus a hardware cost of hundreds of dollars per device — slows adoption. [2] — Steven Bisaha "170,000+ US locations use Toast devices: As of March, more than 170,000 restaurant locations in the US were using Toast's handheld payment …" 06:40 But the momentum is real: Toast reported more than 170,000 US locations using their hardware as of March, and with competitors in the market, the pen-and-paper checkout may be heading for extinction.
Server Miguel Aguilar tried both systems. The old way: constant trips back and forth, everything taking forever. The new way: four to six tables at once, service time nearly cut in half. The change wasn't optional — it was transformational.
US restaurant menus don't show tax-inclusive prices — not out of malice, but because it's a collective action problem. Any single restaurant that adds tax to listed prices will look more expensive than competitors. Add overlapping state, city, and county taxes, and you start to understand why menus stay the way they are.
Sherry Kimes cited three reasons: tradition, competitive collective action risk, and the complexity of varying state, city, and county tax rates.
With handheld payment devices, server Miguel Aguilar said he could manage 4 to 6 tables outside without running back inside for every order.
Server Miguel Aguilar said the handheld payment devices nearly halved the time needed to serve each table compared to the old pen-and-paper system.
Sam built Algrow from zero to $14,000 in monthly revenue within just six months of shipping his first MVP.
Algrow reached over 10,000 users in roughly six months, driven almost entirely by organic Discord community growth.
Sam acquired his first 400 users entirely through Discord communities, without paid advertising or traditional outreach.
Algrow added exactly 480 new paying customers in its most recent month, demonstrating strong ongoing growth.
Sam's Stripe dashboard showed over £10,000 in revenue in the last four weeks, equivalent to roughly $13,000–$14,000 USD.
Sam gave all early users free access so they could show the tool to friends, turning them into live demos and advocates who helped the product spread virally.
By silently screen-sharing his tool in Discord voice chats rather than posting links, Sam attracted curiosity without violating no-self-promo server rules.
Before building Algrow, Sam and two friends made over $10,000 in revenue through affiliate marketing for RizzApp by posting faceless texting story content.
Bhanu grew SiteGPT to $13,000 monthly recurring revenue entirely through organic channels, spending nothing on paid marketing.
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