I'm Not a Tech Bro. That's the Point.

Most shop software is built by people who never worked a rush. What changes when the person building it has, for over a decade, and still does.

By Jade Valore, founder of DeskPanther. Started on a truck, grew it into a 4-location coffee company, still behind the counter. 🐾

No, I'm not a tech bro. My stepdad was, though. I was probably 8 years old when he gave me my first computer. This was back when having a computer in your room was a BIG deal. I grew up around technology because of him, and by the time the AIM and MySpace days came around, I was messing with code, changing things I probably shouldn't have been changing, breaking stuff, figuring out why I broke it, and then trying again.

I didn't know what "coding" really meant. I definitely wasn't thinking about building software one day. I just liked figuring out how things worked. Then I grew up and opened a coffee shop. Very natural career progression.

I Never Went Into Tech. I Went Into Shops.

For over a decade, my world has been coffee shops. I've opened them, closed them, built them, expanded them, staffed them, managed them, and made approximately eight billion mistakes inside of them. I've worked behind the bar. I've worked rushes. I've covered call-outs. I've done payroll. I've placed orders. I've dealt with something breaking while the store is packed. I've had employees text me things I immediately forgot about. I've over-ordered. I've under-ordered. I've created systems that worked beautifully and systems that absolutely did not.

And I still do it. That's the part that's important to me. I'm not sitting somewhere trying to remember what it was like to operate a shop five years ago. I still own them. I still get the messages. I still see the orders. I still deal with the problems. So when I'm building something for DeskPanther, I don't have to imagine how an owner might use it.

I'm the owner using it.

Everything Is Trial and Error

Honestly, "trial and error" will probably be written on my tombstone one day. I genuinely believe one of the best ways to figure out if something works is to TRY IT. Sometimes it works. Sometimes you're like, wow, I'm a genius. Sometimes it fails so spectacularly that you're embarrassed you ever had the idea. But then you know.

I'd rather try something, watch it fail, figure out WHY it failed, and make it better than spend forever being afraid to take the risk in the first place. That's basically how I've built my businesses. It's also how I built the systems that eventually became DeskPanther.

You make a process. Your employees use it. Something about it sucks. You change it. They use it again. Someone finds a way to do something you absolutely did not anticipate. You change it again. Eventually, after enough years of doing that, you end up with systems that actually work in a real shop. Not because they sounded good on paper, but because they've survived actual employees using them during actual shifts.

Real Shops Are Weird

This is where I think experience matters. A workflow can make PERFECT sense when you're sitting at a desk looking at it. Then give it to a 19-year-old employee during a Saturday rush with 20 drinks on the screen and see what happens.

A Saturday rush with 20 drinks on the screen. That's the test.

The employee doesn't care how technically impressive the software is. They're trying to make drinks, help customers, restock cups, answer their coworker, clean something, and figure out why the blender suddenly sounds like it's about to explode. If reporting that blender requires 14 steps, they're probably not reporting the blender. That's not because they're a bad employee. The system is bad.

Owners have their own version of this. I don't want another dashboard that requires me to become an expert in the dashboard. I don't want to spend three hours configuring something that's supposed to save me time. I don't want 700 features because technically you CAN build 700 features. I want the thing I need to do to take as few steps as possible. That's what living this every day changes.

Who Builds the System Matters

I've thought about this a lot while building DeskPanther. If you've never had to do weekly ordering for multiple stores, how do you decide what the perfect ordering workflow is? If you've never had three employees tell you the same thing is broken, how do you know why a repair form matters? If you've never been interrupted by non-urgent work texts all day, how do you know how badly owners want certain information to just GO SOMEWHERE until they're ready to look at it? If you've never worked a rush, how do you know how many steps are too many steps?

You can absolutely research these things. You can interview owners. You can build something based on what people tell you. But there's something different about feeling the pain yourself. I've lived the problem, and I'm still living it.

That's Actually the Point

I'm not trying to cosplay as a Silicon Valley founder. I'm a shop owner who happened to grow up loving computers, spent over a decade building businesses, accidentally created a bunch of my own systems along the way, and finally realized I could turn those systems into software.

The technology is obviously important. DeskPanther has to work. But I think the experience behind what we're building matters just as much. Every feature has to answer a pretty basic question:

Does this actually make running the shop easier?

Not, "Can we build it?" Not, "Would this look cool on a feature list?" Not, "Does another SaaS company have it?" Does it actually solve something?

And if I don't know, I'll test it. I'll put it in my own stores. I'll let my team use it. I'll listen when they tell me something is annoying. I'll change it. I'll probably break something. We'll fix it. Then we'll try again. Trial and error. Told you. Tombstone.

I Feel the Pain. I Don't Want You to Have To.

There's something really cool about realizing that all the annoying little problems I've dealt with for years might actually help somebody else avoid them. I've already done a lot of the trial and error. I've already made a lot of the mistakes. I've already built the weird laminated sheets, the forms, the websites, the processes, the group chats, the systems on top of systems, and then figured out which parts were actually useful.

Now I get to take what worked and build something better from it. So no, I'm not a tech bro. I'm the person who has worked the rush, placed the order, gotten the "we're out of cups" text, dealt with the broken equipment, fixed the time clock, covered the call-out, and then gone home and thought:

There has to be a better way to do this.

Now I get to build it. And hopefully, you don't have to spend over a decade figuring it out the hard way like I did.

A quick note: This article describes my personal experience running my own businesses and the systems I've developed along the way. It is not legal, HR, employment, payroll, tax, or compliance advice. Laws and requirements vary by location and business. DeskPanther is an operations tool and does not determine legal compliance. Business owners should consult their own qualified professionals regarding the requirements that apply to their business.