Category Visionaries Ty Wilson, CEO & Co-Founder of Tab Commerce: $4 Million Raised to Build the Commerce Layer for Restaurant Supply Chains
Tab Commerce is pioneering the first corporate card built specifically for restaurants, tackling the complex back-office operations of a traditionally low-margin industry. With $4 million in funding, Tab is creating a comprehensive spend management platform that addresses the unique challenges restaurant operators face. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Ty Wilson, CEO and Co-Founder of Tab Commerce, to learn how his family restaurant background and pandemic-era insights led to building a fintech company that's transforming restaurant profitability through better spend management.
Topics Discussed:
- Tab Commerce's evolution from supply chain solution to specialized corporate card for restaurants
- The complex, fragmented nature of restaurant back-office operations and purchasing
- How Tab is growing through strategic industry association partnerships
- The challenges of distribution and relationship-building in the restaurant technology space
- Tab's vision to become the standard commerce layer for the $1.5 trillion restaurant supply chain
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
- Study success relentlessly: Ty shared he constantly goes deep on companies he admires, calling it "one of the best uses of my time." He studies everything from their podcasts to press materials, which directly inspired Tab's corporate card product after researching Ramp. B2B founders should identify "company crushes" and systematically analyze their business models, marketing strategies, and product innovations for applicable insights.
- Vertically-focused products win over horizontal solutions: Tab recognized that generic spend management tools don't work for restaurants' unique workflows. "Every vertical will have their own spend management platform because every vertical has their own workflows and needs and go-to-market strategies," Ty explained. B2B founders should embrace deep vertical specialization rather than building generic solutions, as vertical focus builds immediate trust with customers who want industry-specific solutions.
- Strategic industry associations can solve distribution challenges: Unlike conventional digital marketing tactics which failed ("LinkedIn ads... doesn't work at all"), Tab found success by partnering with restaurant industry associations. Ty relocated his office to be five minutes from the Texas Restaurant Association and co-branded a card with them. For B2B founders targeting fragmented industries, leveraging established industry groups can provide credibility, access to engaged audiences, and cost-effective distribution channels.
- Relationship-based sales beats transactional approaches: In an era of increasingly transactional software sales, Tab deliberately built a relationship-focused sales organization. "Software sales has become super transactional. And I think that's hurt industries like restaurants and other brick and mortar businesses because they're very relationship based," Ty noted. B2B founders should consider whether their target market responds better to high-touch, relationship-driven sales approaches rather than modern, low-touch methods.
- Discover "landmines" through persistent market testing: Ty revealed it took over two and a half years to gain meaningful traction, during which they encountered numerous "landmines" – seemingly intuitive product ideas that actually failed in practice. For example, they initially tried to digitize chef-supplier ordering before realizing the existing phone/text workflow was actually more efficient. B2B founders should rigorously test assumptions and be prepared to pivot from apparently obvious solutions that the market rejects.
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