Company name: On The Fly POS
Website: https://ontheflypos.com
Number of employees: 30
2024 Projected growth: 150%
Headquarter location: Doral, FL
Year founded: 2019
Vertical markets: restaurant, stadium, concert venues
Vendor partners: Aurora Payments, DishOut, OnCore Payment Technologies, Pax Technology, SUNMI
The restaurant point of sale software market is saturated and complicated. The legacy providers are either thoroughly entrenched and have loyal resellers and customers or have been consumed by the influx of payment processing companies looking to gain a more direct entry into the market and merchant relationships. At the same time, new companies like Toast have risen rapidly behind millions of dollars of VC backing.
It’s not a market that you’d look at and think, “I see an opening for me. I’m going to develop my own restaurant POS system.” However, that’s precisely what Manny Garcia, CEO of Florida-based On The Fly POS, thought. And build his own restaurant POS system, he did.
You could look at Garcia’s resume and assume he didn’t know better. You see, Garcia has a law degree and was a practicing lawyer for 12 years. However, in 2015, Garcia joined a group of individuals with an ISO/agent office selling payment processing and restaurant hardware and software to merchants.
When it comes to selling, installing, and servicing SMB restaurant IT (hardware, software, payment processing), restaurants typically obtain their systems directly from a single vendor (e.g., Toast, Square) or through a reseller partner (e.g., ISOs, independent sales organizations; or VARs, value-added resellers).
As an ISO, Garcia began working with restaurants closely and learning about their struggles and the issues they face in their operations. Often, restaurants are locked into the hardware (touch screens, tablets, payment terminals) and payment processors by the software company. “We noted the friction created by many of the existing solutions that restaurants were using,” Garcia recalls. “To change your system was a huge undertaking. We didn’t see anything that gave restaurants many choices regarding things like the hardware or the processor they use.”
“We didn’t see anything that gave restaurants many choices regarding things like the hardware or the processor they use.”
Eventually, Garcia wondered, “Wouldn’t it be great if there was something easy and hardware-agnostic for our customers?”
Coincidentally, Garcia was visited at his office by Alfredo Cubillos, who had created a tablet app for tableside ordering. Garcia was struck by the passion and expertise of the visitor, so much so that he invited him back the next day. “Alfredo came back thinking he was going to sell me on his app, but I surprised him by pitching my idea for a complete POS system for restaurants,” says Garcia. “I asked him if he was interested in building something together. That’s what began the journey and when Alfredo became the co-founder of On The Fly POS.”
Startup Decisions Made Easier
The merchant processing business had been flourishing, so when it came time to fund the creation of On The Fly, Garcia had some money to invest. “We immediately brought in two developers, so it was the four of us, with me running the office and Alfredo managing the developers,” he says.
Within a year of ideation, the company had a product that was getting close to market readiness. It wasn’t long, however – one week after the first beta was released – before COVID hit Florida. “We went into lockdown. Maybe it was an inspiring book I was reading then, but we met, and I felt like COVID was an opportunity for us,” Garcia recalls. “What we built was already contactless. It had features that were ideal and, eventually, must-have during the pandemic. I wanted to double down and go for it.”
Garcia approached his partners from the payments company, seeking an injection of capital to fund an expansion and, ultimately, a quicker time to market. At a time when other companies were cutting expenses and worrying about the future, On The Fly POS hired nine additional developers that month.
Starting a complete POS solution from scratch gave Garcia a lot of flexibility in the direction of the product. However, that flexibility could also be overwhelming. “There were features we obviously had to have to be competitive,” he says. “Integrations with printers, kitchen display systems, Grub Hub and other delivery services were operational must-haves. Those are great, but for me, my must-haves were different. With every decision we made concerning product features and roadmap, I wanted to ensure that when an ISO evaluated the many choices to offer their restaurant customers, On The Fly POS stood out as the best choice due to ease and lack of friction.”
Garcia adds that even if his team came up with the coolest feature or solution, his VC-backed competitors could replicate it the next day. He felt he could only differentiate by sticking to his core principle.
In February 2020, On The Fly POS had a product; shortly after that, ten customers were willing to take a chance on the new solution.
Finding the Right Payment Processor
As with every merchant application, there has to be some way for the software to accept and process credit card payments. On The Fly has partnered with various payment processors with a payment-agnostic approach. All payment processors, however, are not all made equal. Some are more technology-driven than others.
For example, the decision to partner with Aurora Payments was easy. “We considered ourselves disruptors and needed a partner with a similar mindset,” he says. “What I appreciate about the leadership at Aurora is that they have the mentality of wanting to change the payments game. They’re creating tools for guys like me to play with. As a little guy, I can’t do it alone, so it’s great to work with an established team of experts who are willing to help and are focused on where the future of payments is heading.”
“As a little guy, I can’t do it alone, so it’s great to work with an established team of experts who are willing to help and are focused on where the future of payments is heading.”
Don’t Undervalue Your Software: Finding the Right Price
With a new product ready and available, Garcia’s biggest challenge was deciding its price. “We had an initial fear of underpricing our solution, and despite that fear, we may have done that a little,” he admits. “Due to our stable financial situation, we weren’t as concerned with recovering our investment as quickly as possible. Therefore, we focused more on winning software subscriptions by pricing ourselves less than the biggest competitors.”
Garcia says the company is now faced with slowly raising prices to where they should be without turning off customers. “Don’t make the mistake of undervaluing your software,” he advises. “If you create something exceptional, don’t be afraid to charge appropriately for the value you provide.”
Finding and Retaining Partners
As mentioned, Garcia’s go-to-market strategy was born out of the payment processing agent/ISO model. On The Fly POS was never going to be sold directly to restaurants. Still, finding good ISOs to sell your software doesn’t just happen; they need to be identified and convinced.
Rather than spending money marketing his software at giant and expensive conventions like NRF or NRA, Garcia invests in exhibiting at small regional trade shows that ISOs attend.
Coming from a payments background, Garcia knows what message resonates with his target reseller partner. “ISOs rightfully want residual income from the credit cards their restaurant’s process,” he explains. “It’s common for some of our competitors to take some of that for themselves. We tell our partners straight up, you don’t have to ever worry about me reaching my hand into your pocket.”
On The Fly POS also doesn’t force its resellers to stick to a set price. “We charge our partners and tell them they can feel free to mark it up or down as much as they want to to be competitive in their markets,” he says.
Finally, since its launch, On The Fly POS has created an onboarding tool and library of training videos to help its partners understand the nuances of available features. While the company is happy to help its partners in whatever role they need, Garcia also understands that a certain amount of freedom comes when partners are enabled. “It’s not something we offered in the beginning and if I had to do it over again, I would have planned better because it’s so useful for our partners,” he adds.
“We tell our partners straight up, you don’t have to ever worry about me reaching my hand into your pocket.”
Leadership Priorities, Decision-Making
With a successful software company now at 30 employees, Garcia shares that his biggest fear is growing too large. “I have it in my head that at 50 employees is when you start to lose that personal touch,” he explains. “It’s not just the relationships with employees. It’s with customers as well. It’s important to know everyone’s names, their kid’s names, and what they want out of life. One of my top priorities is to stay connected.”
In fact, Garcia feels one-half of his job should be dedicated to supporting the culture he’s built. “It’s not buying pizza. It’s not wearing jeans on Friday. That’s nonsense, right? It’s knowing your team, knowing what they care about, what they want, what motivates them, what demotivates them, and what they want out of this so that it’s not just a job, but a career,” he says. “We don’t clock in or have timecards, which was a huge change for me, coming from a practicing law background. But it’s served me well, finding employees who care and recognize that we’re all in this together, working toward a common goal.”
Another priority for Garcia is to focus on what’s right for his customers. As with many software companies, this often manifests when making product roadmap decisions. “We have ideas written everywhere. Our office looks like something from ‘A Beautiful Mind,'” he quips. “We have regular planning meetings, and we try to stick to our roadmap, but often, new ideas come up that will pull us into a new direction. I used to kick myself for pivoting, because I felt like we were being unfocused, but now I understand that we need to be nimble and that it’s one of our strengths.”
The Future of Restaurant POS
Today, On The Fly POS is a complete software solution to run a restaurant business. Garcia likens his software to the engine in a car. “We’re now expanding into an ecosystem for restaurants to use,” he explains. “It’s digital menu boards. It’s a kiosk. It’s online ordering and management tools.”
Looking to the future, Garcia wants to take the idea of frictionless POS to its extreme. To him, that means allowing restaurants to use any mobile device to service customers and accept payments. “Changes are happening all the time. We don’t know what future hardware will allow us to do. We don’t know what features will be needed years from now, but as long as I’m in this chair, I will be focused on ensuring our On The Fly POS is faster, easier and cooler than the competition,” he concludes.
