My Payment Inventions (Many of which have become real)

I've been deeply involved in payments for 15 years

Payments and payment systems have always fascinated me for a number of reasons. First off, I find the issue of moving money easily to be unique and interesting. And secondly, there’s a great saying that if you want to make a lot of money, you need to be close to a lot of money moving because then you can just dip in an take a piece.

I’ve always thought the more frictionless you made payments, the more people would spend, and the more the economy would grow. With the advent of the smartphone, I saw a lot of opportunities. What’s most interesting is many of those I worked on over the years flared out but then eventually became reality.

My first startup was actually a payments company in disguise. SmartFuel was an iOS app that let you see live gas prices along your route for any gas station in America. The data was collected directly from credit card swipes. It was featured on the front page of the App Store two months after launch.

However, what SmartFuel was really about was paying for gas. We planned to use a QR code on pumps scanned by our app with your card details stored in order to activate the pump and let you pay.

Mind you, this photo was taken IN 2010.

It was also my first foray into POS integration which we hit like a brick wall. There was no easy way to activate pumps at stations and we knew it would cost a tremendous amount to integrate with them.

More interestingly, Exxon deployed QR codes on their pumps for their mobile app in the exact same way we planned…in 2020. We were a full 10 years ahead of the payments industry.

After moving to San Francisco, I attended a large hackathon. I had taken notice of the fact that every app on your phone required you to re-enter your card details. This was a major hurdle to completing purchases and I’m sure many would be buyers dropped off at this point. Not only that, but entering the info was time consuming and a pain.

So over a weekend, we made an app that stored your credit card details and through a button in another app, would switch to it, allow you to authorize a purchase, and then switch back. We came in 2nd.

Now, you may notice making payments on an iOS device is very fast these days due to Apple Pay…and that’s essentially what our app was. According to Wikipedia, Apple Pay was in plans for a while but work only really began in 2013 with its launch in 2014. I sometimes wonder if an Apple exec or someone else involved saw our demo and thought of how useful it would be integrated into the OS (and by no means am I taking credit for Apple Pay - I’m sure they had the same idea I did a long time beforehand).

Then came restaurants. I wanted to allow you to pay for your check using a QR code on the receipt. I bought and hacked a thermal printer using an Arduino stuck in between it and the serial port of a computer to stick a QR code at the bottom of the receipt. I called it Finale.

This image was taken IN 2012. Now, everyone loved this one, but the issue was again connecting to the point of sale. This led to the founding of my 2nd startup, Omnivore, that is widely installed across the restaurant industry.

Eventually, Toast would standardize QR codes on its receipts…in 2021. Again, at least with the QR code, I was about 10 years too early.

At this point, you may be asking why I didn’t patent these things. Well, patents are only as valuable as the money you have to defend them in court and, well, I didn’t have enough to defend against Exxon or Toast. I also didn’t view them as something I should restrict on the world. I would rather see my inventions get adopted than really make money off of them, especially because the margins are so thin.

It’s also quite frankly because everyone at the time said my ideas were stupid. I don’t recall a single person telling me QR codes on receipts was a good idea. Same with the other projects I’m about to describe. It was very disheartening working hard on these ideas, showing them to friends, and having them dismiss them.

Then later came a project I called RocketPay. It was similar to a SSO “Login with Google” system where at checkout in a browser, you’d click pay with RocketPay, it would pop up a window where you are already logged in with your payment details. You just selected a card and optionally a shipping address, and you were done.

Again, Apple Pay has pretty much solved this in the browser (again, years after I did it) but so has Shop Pay, although Shop is not as streamlined as the solution I came up with in 2015.

After having so many ideas except for POS integration flare out, I went on to build Dave’s banking software and then moved on from payments. But I do have an ace up my sleeve and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

QR codes in receipts at restaurants are fun but not nearly as streamlined as the payment experience at restaurants can be. I also invented something in 2013 that I have yet to see implemented.

Essentially, when you get your check, there’s a big outline of a phone on the cover of the receipt holder with a note that says, “Place your phone here to pay.” You drop your phone onto the check holder at a restaurant when it comes, and up pops your receipt. You can then pay with Apple Pay and you’re done. From start to finish in under 10 seconds. Way easier than opening the camera and fumbling to scan a QR code.

And this one I have patented.

So if anyone would like to see this implemented or work together to implement it (calling everyone at Toast), drop a comment or reach out to me. I’d love to be able to check out at restaurants even faster and without the annoyance of scanning a QR code.

So, that’s my history of payment inventions over the last 15 years. I adore how most have come to pass and take great pride in the fact that my inventions were usually about 10 years early. I of course have another half dozen up my sleeve, but we’ll save that for after the patents are granted.