With tabletop beer tap technology becoming more common in bars across the country, it was only a matter of time before self-serve liquor options found their way into a marketplace that thrives on giving consumers more control (think digital jukebox apps, iPad ordering systems, and handheld payment hardware). To find out more about this growing trend, we spoke with Daniel Dabakaroff, co-owner of the newly unveiled ShotTender, which gives your customers the chance to serve themselves a shot or two.
BB: How did you get involved with ShotTender?
Dabakaroff: My partner, Paul King, founded another company about five years ago called GoCharge, and when I met him about a year-and-a-half ago I remember thinking how young he was to have come out with a brand like GoCharge (which is a charging kiosk for cell phones). I thought about what we could come up with that takes a similar approach of giving customers direct access to something. So I brought up the idea of the ShotTender to Paul and he was really excited, because he’d had a similar concept already in the works. He was in the process of getting the machine together, and I joined in towards the end of it before everything was approved. And then together we came up with all these new ideas on how to make the machine better, to add advertising options by putting an LED screen on top, and different ways to market and promote the machine. And then we had to figure out how to present it. Why would people buy it? And the most logical thing we came up was this: When you have a bar that’s busy and someone just wants a quick shot, most likely they’re going to get annoyed with the wait and with the bartender, who is busy making cocktails and can’t give them any attention, when all he wants is a simple shot. That customer might just walk away and not spend that money on a shot; or he might even leave your bar and get his shot someplace else. So we thought, if you could have a machine next to the bar where a customer can go and just get their shot, it could really open things up all around for your business. And that’s where it started.
BB: After the concept gets developed, what’s the next stop in actually designing and building the hardware?
Dabakaroff: The technology is made in China, where we work with a manufacturer. The company that puts it all together—the mechanisms and the container, etc.—is out of California.
BB: Did you and Paul have input on the design and the look of the final product?
Dabakaroff: We did. We had pre-approval of everything. Step-by-step, as they advanced through the design and the manufacturing, we made changes all along. We had final approval and then we moved on to manufacturing.
