A Techie and a GM Walk Into a Bar...

It sounds like the start of a joke, but it is the origin story of Hops.

Robbie Francis entered hospitality from the technology side, building POS and infrastructure systems across retail and hospitality. Aaron Resch came from operations, opening his own restaurant and then running high-volume sites including Big Easy Canary Wharf, Red Dog Saloon, and The Boundary in Shoreditch.

They came from different directions, but hit the same issues: fragmented workflows, patchy visibility, and systems that were hard to maintain in the middle of live service.

Two Very Different Entry Points

Eposability at a restaurant show (where Robbie and Aaron first crossed paths).

1. Robbie, what was your entry into hospitality?

Robbie Francis: "I spent years building and implementing tech at scale in retail, specialising in POS and infrastructure before turning to hospitality. I thought it would be the same. It was not."

2. And Aaron?

Aaron Resch: "I entered the industry with equal naivety. I was opening my own restaurant and walked every aisle of The Restaurant Show trying to figure it out."

Aaron behind the bar.

3. What were those early experiences like in practice?

Aaron Resch: "At United Ramen I was using spreadsheets to try to figure out GP because I could not afford bigger systems and no one really taught me how to control costs."

Aaron promoting his first restaurant, United Ramen.

"Every business I walked into, the system was a mess, not because it could not work, but because no one could keep on top of it."

Same Problem, Different Angles

4. As you both spent more time in the industry, what patterns emerged?

Aaron Resch: "If no one owned the system, it would fall apart within weeks."

Robbie Francis: "At the other end, there was often no system at all and no knowledge of what to do."

Eposability powering till operations in venue.

5. Was there a moment where things really came together?

Aaron Resch: "At The Boundary, with rooftop bar, retail shop, café, hotel, and events, it clicked that this is not just stock. Ordering, receiving, invoicing, and accounts all have to connect."

Aaron at The Boundary Hotel.

6. How did that shape Hops?

Robbie Francis: "We did not want to add features for the sake of it. We wanted to connect the entire operation end to end, with operators driving product direction."

"We wanted to connect the whole operation system end to end."

Beyond Tech: The Education Gap

7. When did you realise technology alone was not enough?

Robbie Francis: "Managers are expected to run stock takes and variance analysis without proper training. Hops Academy exists to close that gap."

8. What operational mistake still shows up most?

Aaron Resch: "Many teams only discover margin problems when management accounts arrive weeks later."

Robbie Francis: "People default to the easiest path, like ordering on WhatsApp. Easy is not always right."

Robbie and Aaron in Canada.

What Hops Is Built On

Hops came from both perspectives meeting in one shared operational reality: service is fast, messy, and unforgiving. Systems have to work in that environment, not just in theory.

That is what Hospitality Operations Simplified means in practice.

Read the original LinkedIn Pulse article: A techie and a GM walk into a bar

Related LinkedIn post: GM and techie origin story