Franchise QB

Episode 92: Roman Maliszewski- Founder and CEO, Tapster

• Mike Halpern • Season 1 • Episode 92

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In this episode of the Franchise QB Podcast, host Mike Halpern speaks with Roman Maliszewski, the founder and CEO of Tapster, a self-pour tasting room franchise. They discuss Roman's journey from advertising to creating a unique bar experience that emphasizes community and connection. 

Tapster's innovative approach allows customers to pour their own drinks while enjoying a variety of beverages in a welcoming environment. Roman shares insights on franchising, the importance of local flavor, and the qualities that make a great franchise partner. The conversation highlights the growth potential of Tapster and its focus on creating a lifestyle brand rather than just a bar.

Takeaways

Roman transitioned from advertising to the bar industry after finding inspiration in a unique bar experience.
The name 'Tapster' is derived from an old term for bartender, emphasizing the self-pour concept.
Tapster offers a variety of beverages, including beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic options.
The focus of Tapster is on creating a community hub rather than just a bar.
The BYOF (Bring Your Own Food) concept allows guests to enjoy food from local restaurants.
Franchising Tapster began after customers expressed interest in the concept.
Roman emphasizes the importance of local flavor and flexibility in franchise locations.
The ideal franchise partner is community-oriented, social, and passionate about their local area.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:50 The Birth of Tapster: A Unique Concept
07:52 Creating a Community Hub: The Tapster Experience
12:24 Franchising Tapster: The Journey Begins
15:43 The Anti-Franchise Franchise: Local Flavor and Flexibility
18:55 Finding the Right Franchise Partner
19:25 Market Insights: Learning from Diverse Locations
23:07 Target Markets and Future Growth
25:59 Conclusion

https://www.tapsterfranchise.com/

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Contact me and my team with any questions along the way. www.calendly.com/franchiseguy
Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

This is the Franchise QB Podcast, where we empower entrepreneurs to win big in franchising. We huddle up weekly to educate our audience about the most successful small business model ever created. Franchise it! Welcome to the Franchise QB podcast. I'm your host, Mike Halpern, a 20 year industry veteran and entrepreneur. My mission is for listeners to achieve their American dreams of creating wealth and independence through franchise ownership. Every week we speak with franchisees, franchisors or vendors that support the industry. Thank you for joining us and let's get started. Joining us on the huddle today is Roman Maliszewski, president and CEO of Tapster. Welcome to the show. Thanks. Appreciate you having me. Yeah, great to have you. um So I love the background. I can see you're in one of the locations there in Philly. Really cool. uh So, Roman, you're the founder and CEO of Tapster, a leading self-pour tasting room franchise reshaping the way communities connect. With a background in advertising and self-pour tech, you launched Tapster in 2017, so eight years ago. Today, the fast-growing franchise thrives with tasting rooms across the US. blending innovation, sustainability, and connection in every poor. And as I mentioned to you in the green room, my wife and I just dropped our uh oldest son off at college for his freshman year in Lexington, Kentucky. He's going to UK. And we got to visit the Tapster location right across from Rupp Arena there. uh Killer location, really cool space, really enjoyed our time there. So Roman, tell us a little bit about your background and how you got involved with self-poor technology. Yeah, so and I appreciate the intro. I originally was in advertising. So right out of college, I was in the ad space for many years doing ad sales, traveling around the country. And it was fun. I enjoyed it, but it was never fulfilling to me. I didn't feel like it was something that gave me a lot. So I took some time off and decided, you know, after some just respite, time to relax and hang out was what do I want do next? And so there was a bar, I was living in Chicago at the time, and there was a bar in River North that had a bunch of booths and it had taps in the booths. So there's two taps coming out of the booths that I would take clients there. Sometimes you just give a credit card to the server. She would open up the taps and it would be Bud Light and some kind of tequila. And so you just sit there and pour this tequila and Bud Light with everybody. It was a blast. It was a great. So when I was thinking about what I want to do next, I really liked the idea of bringing something new to the bar space. And so my vision was really take that concept of what's on the tables and do what's behind me, which is a wall of taps that you can do. So I didn't know where to begin. So I went back to that same bar and I asked them who does this technology? How does it work? Luckily, the founder of that tech company, which is called Pour My Beer, was based outside of Chicago. Okay, so I went I got in the car went out there met the founder and said, you know, here's my vision. Here's what I want to do. And within 30 minutes, he had offered me a job to work for Pour My Beer, because I'd been in sales for so long. And I was kind in between jobs. So I actually went and worked for him. Okay, Josh, Goodman. Yeah, for about two years. So I I was learning everything about Pour My Beer and working towards this. as the main concept versus the tables. And meanwhile, working on a business plan, figuring out exactly what I wanna do for my concept, learning from everybody I was selling to, ah and that's kinda how I came to it. But really wanting to create something new and different in the bar restaurant space, because personally, I don't like to just sit around and do nothing. I like to be active, and so this added to that, and it's been a blast so far. Yeah, so far really cool. Thank you for the backstory. It's kind cool how you took clients there with kind of your old job and then that kind of led you to this aha moment that helped you launch this Tapster concept. So I got to ask, how did you pick the name Tapster? It seems relatively intuitive, but is there more to it? Yeah, there is. A lot of people think I've made it up, but because it sounds kind of fake. But I was thinking about bartenders. So you're the bartender in this concept. And so I started looking up synonyms of bartenders. So you know, barkeep, barback. whatever you could think of. And tapster is actually a really old word for a bartender. I think it originated in like the 1500s in England in the countryside. So whoever was at the tap at your local pub was called a tapster. And so I was like, this is too perfect. But yeah, it definitely sounds like a tech app or something like that too sometimes. That's cool. So Roman, for someone who's never been, how does the tapster self-pour experience feel different than walking into say a traditional bar? Yeah, I think right away you walk in and there's taps that you can walk up to that are on the opposite side. Usually on the taps at a bar are behind the bar and you can't touch them. Here you walk in and you literally have a quick line of sight right to the taps. I think that's originally what it is. ah But then The process really is you walk up to our host stand and we actually call it a card stands because you're gonna get one of these cards. So it's an RFID card. You give us a debit or credit card that just connects to this card and then you're open. So you can go up to these taps and you can decide what you wanna try. You tap your card there. It knows who you are, how much you drank and then you can sample different things. So really the idea is less about what you're going to drink a ton is just try a bunch of different things. Very cool. And I can imagine that beer is probably the majority of what is consumed at Tapster, but do you offer different types of beverages as well? Yeah. So at Tapster, we offer uh beer, wine, cocktails, kombucha, cold brew coffee, mocktails, so everything. And the real thought there was Not everybody likes just beer. like to, there's groups of people that come in and they get really excited when there's cocktails on draft. And we make all our cocktails, put them in kegs. And there's a huge crew that doesn't like drinking. ensuring that we have some non-alcoholic taps is really important. So I just wanted to make sure to be inclusive of everybody, what they're trying. And again, you can just go up and sample things. You don't have to pour a full glass. So variety is really important to I love that. You can just like, put together a flight, you can take a little bit, you can get a full pint, like whatever you wanna do. That's pretty cool. Yeah, and also, there's a funny thing that I've seen is people mixing. So not just cocktails, which obviously you could mix two different cocktails or non-alcoholic. You know, people are sometimes mixing beers, which is super random and interesting to me too. I I don't know if I... 100 % recommended all the time, but it's fun. makes for a fun experience. Yeah. And also it's probably embarrassing to go to like a bartender and say, Hey, give me half a ultra and half an IPA. But if you're doing it yourself, you're like looking around, you're like, I'm going to give it a try and see. And if it doesn't work, no one's going to know. So I've heard you say the Tapster is not in the bar business, but in the lifestyle business. What do you mean by that? Yeah. I think what I'm trying to do is create a space and a community center. for people to come hang out with their friends, do different events, whether it's trivia or listening to music or hosting events. ah That's really what I'm aiming at is less so, hey, let's go drink. And it's more, let's go meet our friends and hang out and be a part of our community, our neighborhood. And so that's really where I see the growth coming is not focusing just on drinks. It's focusing on different community centers across the US, bringing people together. creating a cool, fun space where you can meet different people and hang out. And the self-poor concept is, it's a little counterintuitive, because a lot of people assume, you're just gonna do your own thing, you're gonna get a drink, you'll never talk to anybody, you just kinda do your own thing. It actually becomes the opposite. The tap wall behind me becomes the epicenter of where everybody hangs out. And they get to talk to anybody coming up to the wall, and you can see what somebody got and ask them, hey, how is that? Was that any good? And that to me is really the crux of the whole thing is oh making sure. I think it's really cool to kind of build the concept around a community first approach and making that social element like a reason why people come and congregate, not just because you have great beer. And I see something really interesting about your concept. Tapster has what you call a BYOF, bring your own food that allows guests the freedom to kind of pair their drinks with whatever they want. So pizzas, tacos, whatever. And that allows you as a franchise owner or an operator to focus on creating a great, relaxed, welcoming environment and eliminating the need for the full kitchen. So I want to hear about kind of the mindset behind that. And then also can guests like bring their own food and or choose the delivery apps? Is it kind of really up to the guest? Yeah. So it's interesting. Originally I had tried You know, I've never been in this industry before this when I started. So I didn't know much about the bar industry, let alone restaurants and food, which I just know it's complicated and it's hard to do well. So I consciously didn't want to mess with it because from what I read and understood and researched, there's a lot of waste and there's a lot of ability to do it wrong. And so I figured if I can take that out, it'll be a lot easier. Luckily, around this time, everybody was going and ordering online and Uber Eats and everything like that was really growing at the same time as we were. So what I decided to do was pick a restaurant or a quick serve spot on our block or within two blocks. I would go talk to the owner and say what we're doing. We're bringing a lot of volume. We just need somebody to deliver food. Now Uber Eats and DoorDash take about 25 to 30 percent. from restaurants when they deliver the food. My point of view was, I'm not gonna take anything. I'm gonna let you help me grow my revenue. You've already got enough struggles, the restaurant's not easy. I'm not gonna take any revenue from you. I just wanna grow and have good food. So they loved it, right? So in every market I've done this, they really appreciate that. And so we put their QR codes on our tables. So our guests can scan, it goes right to their kitchen. they deliver it right to your table. if, know, hypothetically, if we didn't tell people that we don't have food and we just said, Tapster, you know, you know, restaurant, they wouldn't know the difference because the food comes in really quickly and it's right there. So that's what we've Thank you. Yeah. And we've expanded from just one partner in certain markets to two or three partners, just because there's variety and there's so many different quick serves around us. But yeah, it's been a blast. But also people can order whatever they want. If they want to do a DoorDash, you know, or a breeze. I think it's really cool. Like you're supporting local businesses. You're making it frictionless for the guests. You're making it great for the partner restaurant. You're making it good for anyone that's in Tapster because like you don't have that extra labor component. You open up a lot more real estate because you don't need the vents in the hoods and all that kind of stuff. So I think It's unique and I think it's really helpful for someone that wants to pursue this as a franchise model, which kind of leads me to my next question. mean, at what point did you determine, so you launched it in 2017. When did you determine that it made sense to kind of offer this as a franchise model? That's funny story. Yeah. I never. knew about franchising. The only thing I knew franchising was McDonald's, right? So that's in my mind that was franchise. So within a month or two of opening the first Tabster in 2017, people started asking me, this a franchise? And then after that, it was almost every week somebody would come in and say, is this a franchise? And I would get insulted first. First I thought this was a unique concept. I thought I had my own thing going and they're thinking I'm part of some franchise. So what I failed to understand at the time, which I do now, was that the branding was really in place. The process was really clean. Everything was so buttoned up that they assumed it had to be templatized. It had to be somebody worked this out, which is a huge compliment to me. I kind of took it that way and then, you know, started researching how to become a franchisor, and then I got franchise. Uh, I became a franchisor I guess in 2018, but then I didn't know anything about this. So I didn't. There wasn't, I didn't have a team. I didn't have anything. have an FDD and operations manual and I just sat on it. I just was like, okay, cool. Doors open. I guess people can come in. So that was really what, what made it happen. So I would never have thought this on my own. Yeah. Well, it's interesting you mentioned that because people hear the word franchise. And of course they think of Chick-fil-A and McDonald's and Taco Bell. Um, you know, like a cookie cutter, QSR. I mean your concept. also is extremely unique. And I want you to go into that a little bit in terms of the trade dress, the decor. uh It seems like when I went to your Lexington spot and looking at the one year and now that you give the franchise owners some freedom to kind of bring in some local flavor, bring in their own kind of local personality. Was that the intent? Yeah, I think it's kind of my personality as well as, you know, filtered into Tapster that I like. I don't want things the same. I don't want it to be cookie cutter. And I don't think translating something that this that's this much of a community hub would work if I just did the same thing everywhere. I think there'll be elements that are similar, right? The tap wall will kind of always look the same, but I want the feel, look and feel to feel like that neighborhood, that city. So in Lexington is different in Seattle, it's different in Cleveland. It's different Chicago. It's different. So I like letting kind of the local operator kind of filter their own vibe and the neighborhoods vibe. Obviously I'll be involved in that process and I like being involved in that process but I will never be the cookie cutter franchise. And I know it's since meeting other franchisors, it's kind of cliche that to say we're not, we're the anti-franchise franchise. So I'm not gonna go there but the overall gist is this. will never look exactly the same no matter where you are. It'll feel the same, but it'll never look the same. Right. And not to confuse our viewers that are watching this, you're wearing the Tapster Lexington shirt, but you're standing in the Tapster Center City, Philadelphia location. I appreciate the Tapster. You're in the UK, blue and white. That's pretty cool. ah So from an operator standpoint, because when people think about getting in the food space, they get freaked out because there's just a lot of moving parts. What makes Tapster smarter, more scalable than a traditional bar or restaurant? Yeah, I think A, we don't have food, right? So that takes out a huge component of your build-out costs as well as your kind of staffing costs. So those two elements alone are enough to put us way ahead of other concepts. But then also when we're operating here, you can do it with very minimal. staff, right? You don't need a lot of people to run a test or if we're slammed here on a Friday and Saturday night, I can run it with three or four people. and that's over a thousand people coming through the door. And the beauty of that to me and a lot of operators and franchisors or just business folks will say, that's great, man. You could, you're, you're operating costs are low. You don't have to pay the staff that much. I kind of look at it the other way. still a few staff, I can pay them much better. It kind of adds to your retention. So really what I'm looking for is a lot less staff, but I can pay them more and they're happier and they're more because basically you're not pouring drinks here, right? I mean, in essence, you're kind of a host, but I need you to be a really good host. I need you to be at the taps talking to people all the time, kind of helping them through the process, being an advocate for different types of drinks. So really it requires a lot of interaction ah from my team that is important. Yeah, no, I like that the staff can focus on the guest experience. I think that is something that gets lost in hospitality sometimes. So let's kind of shift gears and talk about the franchise partner. Like in your view, who makes the best Tapster franchise partner? Do they need industry experience, passion for hospitality? Who do you see that ends up translating into a really good owner in your system? That's a great question. I'd be pretty hypocritical if I said as the guy who's never done this before and starting it that you need to be in the industry. So I think let's start with you don't need to have been in the bar restaurant industry. That's flat out. You do need to be somebody who's very proud of where you live, who's embedded in your community and your culture of your town or your city. And you want to be an advocate for that place. You want to promote the cool beers and drinks from that city. that and obviously or not obviously, you need to be hyper social, right? You need to be the person that goes and talks to everybody when you're out and about. When you're in the airport, you talk to people. When you're on the train, you talk to people. You're not obnoxiously, but you strike up conversations and you meet people. Those are the elements that are the most important to me is that you love your community and you love people and you love talking to new people. mean, the rest is very teachable. The technology, the processes. All that's fine, you can't teach somebody to be social and magnanimous and wanna be around people, you know? Yeah, yes, we're looking for an extrovert mayor of the town. Yes, they have to be capitalized and have some business acumen, but if that's kind of in their DNA, they're gonna be a fit for you. Yeah, big time. Cool. So Tapster already has locations like where you are in Philly, you're in Bellevue, Washington. So you're across the country. We talked about Lexington. You're in Chicago where you're from, Seattle, Cleveland. What have you learned from these diverse markets and where do you think you're going to grow next? Yeah, it's been a wild ride, but a good learning ride too, right? So the drinking habits in Seattle are much different than the drinking habits in Philadelphia, right? So in the summer, in Philadelphia, everybody goes down to the Jersey shore. They all leave the city and the city is kind of empty. So those are our slower months. In Seattle, which is usually dark and rainy in other seasons, the summer is gold. So that's our highest season. So just seasonality is one thing, but also just drinking styles too. So people in Philadelphia, they love IPAs. They're seasonal drinkers, in the summer they love lagers, in the winter they do like Stout's and Porter's and IPAs. In Seattle, it's year round, they absolutely love IPAs and ciders. I've never seen anybody like ciders more than people in Seattle. I think it's because they have fresh, you know, kind of fresh everything out there. But it's been fascinating. We had to add more taps of ciders, it did that well. um So I think those are really interesting parts, the seasonality of it, the types of things people are drinking. um But I think in general, across the country, the concept really works as a place for people to come together, for people to hang out. And it really alleviates a lot of stress. Sometimes people stress out about going to a bar or restaurant when they have to go up to the bar and get a drink or where's my server or what do I, we have to split the tab. It's just a lot easier here and it lowers the stress. So, People are just a lot more relaxed at Tapster. They're a lot more easygoing. That's what I've learned across the country, which makes me really proud, because that's what I want. And it seems like Tapster can kind of go in anywhere USA and work, but do you guys have any specific target markets where you kind of see the next wave of locations opening? Yeah. So we have two new franchisees coming on in the next year, or six months actually. So Denver, we're close to signing a lease. And then in Long Island, we're going to be signing a lease as well. So those two, but I do think, I do think a huge market for us is just the Midwest and the East coast. think in general towns across the Midwest and the East coast, people are really social. People are really getting out. They love sports. They want to support their teams. They want to be at a place where they can hang out and do that. And for me, I personally, As I've been in such tier one cities, Seattle and Chicago and Philadelphia, I'm learning cities like Lexington, Kentucky or Bellevue, Washington. These tier two and tier three cities are really where I'm gonna try to aim because there's lower cost, lower threshold, but still a lot of people going out and being social. So that's kind of where I wanna aim it at is these smaller kind of markets where it's easier for franchisees to. to build it out and it were inexpensive than in a big city. That's really my goal. Yeah. It's like when we went to Lexington, my wife and I had never been there until my kid was like, Hey, I want to go to college here. And we went and we're like, wow, this town's amazing. Like it's 200,000 people like at max and you guys have your spot right across from Rupp Arena, which is like, I mean, when you get to downtown Lexington, you see a skyscraper. It's not Manhattan, but it's like a real city. And but it's got that local feel and the people are super friendly and I love the hospitality, great food. um So I can see a lot of towns across America that kind of fit that description would be a really good fit. And in terms of your footprint, I know there's going to be variants in that, but like, do you have a target square footage that you'd like to see? And I'm sure the economics depend on, you know, cost per square foot and whatnot, what's kind of our range for the size of your space? Yeah, I think I think on average it's been about 2500 to 3500 square feet. But 3000 to 3200 is kind of the sweet spot of oh what we want to do. ah Outside area is key. So moving forward having a patio is really crucial. Or a separate room that you could do private events or weekly events like a painting class or an exercise class. Those are really important to me. But that 3000 square feet is really kind of clutch. And then that kind of leads me into item seven. So I'm sure you have a big range depending on if it's a gray box and you have to put everything in or if it's a vanilla shell or it's a second gen space. I know you have a specific equipment package as it relates to the beer wall and everything. But what is the range to open a Tapster franchise? Yeah, I'd say the range on the lowest end, it'll be around 350,000 and on the high end 800,000. That's kind of the the range that I'm seeing right now and obviously depending on market. I'm sure you get a lot of squirrely answers when you ask that. Well, because you know, in your space, there's such a variance based on the condition, right? And then of course the landlord might contribute some TI money and you can't bank on that, but sometimes it can be pretty handsome. yeah. what I've learned too is second generation bar restaurants is our sweet spot. So Unfortunately, there's a lot of, well, fortunate for me, but unfortunately for the market, there's a lot of bars and restaurants that have gone or are going out of business right now. And so if we can capitalize on that, there's a lot of infrastructure already in place that we can utilize and just flip the bar into a self-pour bar. That's really our sweet spot. Awesome. And I know that Mike couldn't join us today. He's your president of franchising uh and he formed the Community Franchise Group after decades of experience in the space. uh You know, is there anything you want to add about Mike and his team before we wrap up today? Yeah. So Mike, uh, Weinberger has been a huge eye opener for me just working with him because I'd never known anybody in franchising really before I started this. Um, he, you know, has, has grown and done such good job. He's helped me learn the infrastructure needed to be a good franchise or, you know, I thought just being a good franchise or was. Hey, I'm with you when we open. I tell you how I do things. I train you on my processes. And then you go and we check in each week. being around him, it's really a lot more accountability and infrastructure around the whole process from before you sign the lease until opening day and then throughout. So it's been really amazing working with him and his team and eye opening for me on what's the best way to evaluate not just a franchisee. but how the franchisee is performing and how to help them. mean, my real goal with franchise, being a franchisor is that I love what I do. I genuinely love it. And if I can help other people do this and they enjoy half as much as I do, they're gonna have a blast. So being able to share this really is my juice. I love what I do, so why not help other people do it and let them feel ownership and grow this thing too. Yeah, it's great that you and Mike have made a deliberate effort to put responsible franchising at the forefront of what you do to make the franchise owners experience one that they know they're supported every step of the way because that's really what leads to a great partnership. uh Roman, this has been great. Anything else you want to add to the mix before we wrap up today? No, I just say you can find us in all the markets you mentioned, but ah on Instagram it's at Tapster Tasting Room or at Tapster Seattle, at Tapster Philly, at Tapster Chicago. at Tapster Lexington. So please check us out and hope to see you soon. Yeah, and I will definitely add those links when I post this on the various platforms. So if anyone listening would like to connect with Roman and his team and Mike to learn more about becoming a franchise owner with Tapster, contact me at FranchiseQB.com or on X @ QBFranchiseQB and I'll get you connected. Thank you so much, Roman, for taking the time to get in the huddle with us today. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the Franchise QB podcast where you're at the helm of your future as a franchise owner. If you enjoyed the content, please rate the show and recommend it to anyone that might be interested in franchising. Make sure to visit FranchiseQB.com to subscribe to my newsletter and for an actionable playbook to go from walk-on to legend in your new business. Follow us on Twitter @QBFranchiseQB and join us every week for a new episode. See you next time. franchiseqb.com. take the next step of your journey towards wealth, independence, and franchise ownership. And remember, when working for the man gets old, you must do something bold. Thank you for listening.