The Entrepreneur Experiment EE469 - Air Miles for the High Street: How Squid Is Rewiring Local Loyalty
In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox welcomes back Matthew Coffey, co-founder of Squid, Ireland and the UK’s largest local loyalty network with 550,000+ users and nearly 2,000 independent businesses.
What began as a simple tap-for-coffee reward app has evolved into a powerful loyalty and payments infrastructure - and now Squid has launched Wave, a universal points currency described as “air miles for the high street.” You can now earn points in one brand and redeem them in another, all by linking your everyday spending cards.
Matthew breaks down how Squid integrated with global giants like Square, raised over €10 million, and is now preparing to expand Wave across Europe as a new rewards-powered payment rail. He also shares the founder lessons he’s learned, from communication to fundraising to scaling fast without losing trust and integrity.
If you’re curious about loyalty, fintech, payments, or the realities of scaling a startup into a European network, this episode is essential listening.
Show Notes
In this episode, Gary chats with Matthew about:
How Squid grew from free coffee stamps to 550,000+ users and almost 2,000 independent businesses.
Why Matthew & Katie focused on coffee shops to build a two-sided network from scratch.
Introducing Wave — “air miles for the high street” where you earn across brands automatically.
How card-linking with Visa/Mastercard/Amex enables one-touch loyalty.
The impact of integrating with Square to give independents big-brand loyalty and data tools.
The journey from early-stage startup to raising over €10m, including a €1.7m+ crowdfunding round.
The North Star metric Squid tracks: the total free product given back to users.
Squid’s two-step scaling playbook for Europe: launch loyalty locally, then layer Wave on top.
Why 2026 will be the “year of payments” as Squid builds a rewards-driven payment rail.
Matthew’s biggest founder lessons: communicate better, expand earlier, trust technology, and be relentless.
Links & Resources
Download Squid on iOS / Android: https://tr.ee/WFmx4sOqmR
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Music Credit: “Nobody Knows” by Andrew Applepie — used under royalty-free license.