A rota on a noticeboard. Someone’s whited out your shift and written their own. Nobody called it broken. It was just how it worked.

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Jeremiah Siemianow, co-founder of Surreal, for a conversation about spotting a problem hospitality had stopped seeing.

Jeremiah shares his journey from clearing tables in Australia, to real estate sales, to building a platform for booking, paying for and promoting live entertainment.

We talk about:

• Why he and his co-founders asked 140 venues one question before building anything
• Bootstrapping with no technical background, and a A$456,000 quote that came back at A$58,000
• Why the first product, a marketplace, was the wrong model
• What the COVID pause gave the industry the chance to rethink
• Why late payment is often a breakdown in process
• Taking Surreal into the UK

Plus the Captive Conversations questions on the best hospitality experience, the best hospitality tech and more.

This episode is a little different. We spent two days at Hospitality Tech Expo at ExCeL London, and some of the best moments happened on stage. Here are four of them.

🎙️ Tommy Giraux, Head of Restaurant Systems at Honest Burgers
"Buy It. Run It. Bin It." The operator's guide to a tech stack that earns its keep.

🎙️ Peter Hurley, Dan Jackson and Gabrielle Goode, Well Seasoned
Building a pre-opening team without hiring anyone, told through the Grosvenor Arms.

🎙️ Eve Williamson and Alana Bralsford, Served
Your menu is turning away more guests than you think, and what to do about it.

Grab a coffee and listen in.

Captive Conversations is the hospitality podcast hosted by Adam Forman, brought to you by Captive WiFi.

Going back into the Captive Conversations archive, this bonus clip features Chris Fletcher.

Chris explains why operators should map the customer journey before buying POS, CRM, loyalty, WiFi or another shiny platform.

Technology should support the guest experience, the operating model and the available budget. Buying what the venue next door uses is not a strategy, especially when basic experiences such as WiFi remain slow or unbranded.

A practical five-minute discussion for hospitality leaders planning technology investment.

#HospitalityTech #GuestJourney #TechStrategy #CaptiveConversations

Going back into the Captive Conversations archive, this bonus clip features Arun Kumar.

Arun explains why a generic comeback email often arrives too late. Restaurants need to understand where customers sit in the journey and identify people who are beginning to disengage before they disappear.

Relevant automated messages can then offer a reason to return at the right moment, without requiring a large marketing team to manage every campaign manually.

A practical five-minute discussion about churn prevention, customer data and restaurant loyalty.

#CustomerLoyalty #RestaurantMarketing #CustomerData #CaptiveConversations

Going back into the Captive Conversations archive, this bonus clip features Lawrence Pelletier.

Lawrence describes what happens as restaurant groups add one system after another. Vendors multiply, integrations remain partial, menus need updating in several places and sales data becomes difficult to reconcile.

The challenge is not simply having lots of technology. It is taking responsibility for the complexity created between the systems and choosing a clear way to manage it.

A practical five-minute discussion for restaurant operators reviewing integration, data and technology ownership.

#RestaurantTech #TechStack #HospitalityOperations #CaptiveConversations

Going back into the Captive Conversations archive, this bonus clip features Laurens Havenaar.

Laurens explains how Piggy started with five iPads in a car and a simple promise to independent shops: install the loyalty platform immediately and begin creating value without a long onboarding process.

The approach replaced paper stamp cards, gave each business useful customer data and created visible social proof as more local shops joined.

A practical five-minute startup story about fast adoption, clear value and removing friction for small businesses.

#Loyalty #RetailTech #CustomerData #CaptiveConversations

Going back into the Captive Conversations archive, this bonus clip features Mike Enslin.

Mike makes a simple point about customer data: when someone reaches payment, they usually want to pay and move on. Asking for details at that moment can add friction to the experience.

The better opportunity may come earlier or later, when the customer has a reason to identify themselves and is happy for a brand to connect their visits, preferences and loyalty activity.

A practical five-minute discussion about frictionless loyalty, customer experience and the role of payment technology.

#CustomerExperience #Loyalty #HospitalityTech #CaptiveConversations

Going back into the Captive Conversations archive, this bonus clip features Steven Rolfe.

Steven and Adam discuss the difference between genuine technology capability and a fashionable label. Products may claim to be powered by AI or blockchain while relying on simpler tools behind the scenes.

The conversation also covers practical use cases, including an HR knowledge bot, computer vision for stock control and automation that saves teams time.

The useful question for operators is not which label appears on a website. It is what problem the product actually solves.

#HospitalityTech #ArtificialIntelligence #TechStrategy #CaptiveConversations