COO - Restaurant POS Platform | WalnutPOS

Location:
United Kingdom

Type:
Full-time, Co-Founder Level Role

Compensation:
£40K + 3-5% equity

About WalnutPOS

We've built a modern, cloud-based POS system designed specifically for independent restaurants.

After 7 months of development and testing with 10 pilot restaurants in Pakistan, we're now launching in the UK market. Our POS offers restaurants a free core system with premium features like AI-powered insights, recipe management with real-time cost calculations, and advanced inventory tracking.

The Role: Chief Operating Officer

We're establishing the company in the UK within the next month and need a COO to build our UK operations from zero.

This isn't a corporate COO role. This is the person who will be employee #2, working directly with the founder to launch and scale WalnutPOS across the UK market.

Your First 90 Days:

Month 1: Market Entry & Foundation

• Help establish UK company structure and operations
• Research UK restaurant landscape and identify target segments
• Visit 30+ restaurants to understand UK market needs
• Build initial go-to-market strategy
• Create restaurant onboarding process
• Set up support infrastructure

Month 2: First Customers

• Lead sales and onboarding for first 20-30 UK restaurants
• Handle customer support personally
• Gather feedback and work with product team on UK-specific needs
• Build case studies and testimonials
• Start refining the playbook

Month 3: Scale Infrastructure

• Hire first 2-3 support/operations team members
• Create scalable onboarding process
• Establish partnerships with key suppliers/vendors
• Build operational dashboards and metrics
• Plan for next 100 restaurants

Months 4-12:

• Scale to UK restaurants
• Build operations team (5-10 people)
• Expand to multiple UK cities
• Own all customer success, support, and operations

What We're Looking For

Must-Haves:

• 5+ years operations experience in high-growth or startup environments
• Experience building something from scratch (0→1 stage)
• Based in UK or able to relocate immediately
• Restaurant, hospitality, retail, or food service industry experience
• Comfortable being hands-on: you'll sell, support, and troubleshoot directly
• Can start within 30-60 days

The Right Mindset:

• Bias toward action—you ship and iterate rather than plan endlessly
• "Figure it out" mentality when faced with ambiguity
• Comfortable doing everything yourself before building a team
• Data-driven but moves quickly
• Genuinely excited about helping restaurants succeed

Nice-to-Haves:

• Previous experience with POS systems, payment systems, or restaurant tech
• Built or scaled B2B SaaS operations
• Understanding of restaurant P&L, food costs, and operations
• Experience managing supplier/vendor relationships
• Have launched products or services in new markets
• Network in UK restaurant industry

What We're NOT Looking For

Corporate executives who need established teams and processes

People who want work-life balance in year 1

Strategy consultants who build presentations instead of executing

Anyone uncomfortable with ambiguity and rapid change

People looking for a "safe" job at an established company

Why This Opportunity

The Market:

• UK restaurant market is massive and underserved
• Independent restaurants desperately need better, affordable tools
• Toast, Square, and others are expensive and clunky
• Perfect timing as restaurants embrace cloud technology post-COVID

The Product:

• Already proven with 10 pilot restaurants
• Modern tech stack (cloud-based, real-time, mobile-first)
• Free tier gets restaurants in the door
• Premium features (AI insights, recipe management) drive revenue
• Offline-capable for reliability

Your Opportunity:

• Ground-floor equity in a UK tech company (3-5%)
• Build operations from zero in a huge market
• Work directly with founder—no bureaucracy
• Own the UK launch and scale
• Potential to lead European expansion

Personal Growth:

• Launch a product in a new market from scratch
• Build and lead your own operations team
• Learn restaurant tech and B2B SaaS
• Gain founder-level operating experience
• Make real impact helping independent restaurants compete

Compensation

Salary:
£40-60K (based on experience)

Equity:
3-5% with 4-year vest, 1-year cliff

Performance Bonuses:

• £5K at 100 UK restaurants
• £10K at 250 UK restaurants
• £10K at 500 UK restaurants

Benefits:

• Healthcare coverage
• Equipment and tools you need
• Flexible working (remote-friendly after launch phase)

Reality Check:

If you're coming from a corporate role, this will be a pay cut. The bet is building something meaningful with significant equity upside rather than optimizing salary today.

Day-to-Day Reality

What you'll actually do:

• Morning: Review overnight support tickets and restaurant issues
• Mid-morning: Sales calls with prospective restaurants
• Lunch: Visit a restaurant to understand their operations
• Afternoon: Onboard new restaurant or train their staff
• Late afternoon: Work with founder on strategy and priorities
• Evening: Maybe handle a support issue or urgent request

First 6 months:

• You ARE the sales team
• You ARE the support team
• You ARE the customer success team
• You ARE the operations team
• Then you build the team

Tools you'll use:

• Slack (for everything)
• Google Workspace
• CRM system (you'll help choose it)
• Our admin dashboard
• Your phone (lots of calls with restaurants)

Success looks like:

• Week 1: First UK restaurant signed and live
• Month 3: 20-30 restaurants live and happy
• Month 6: 100+ restaurants, 3-5 team members hired
• Month 12: restaurants, established UK operations

Our Culture

We value:

• Execution over planning
• Data over opinions
• Shipping fast over perfect
• Helping restaurants succeed above all else
• Everyone does whatever needs doing

We avoid:

• Unnecessary meetings
• Politics and bureaucracy
• "That's not my job" mentality
• Analysis paralysis
• Excuses

The Interview Process

Stage 1: Initial Call (45 minutes)

• Your background and experience
• Our vision for WalnutPOS in UK
• Honest conversation about the role and reality
• Mutual fit assessment

Stage 2: Assignment (3-5 hours your time)

• "Design a 90-day plan to launch WalnutPOS in the UK market"
• We want to see how you think and approach problems
• No need for fancy presentations—a doc or slides is fine

Stage 3: Deep Dive (90 minutes)

• Review your assignment together
• Discuss operational challenges and how you'd solve them
• Meet the founder properly
• Talk about working relationship and expectations

Stage 4: Final Conversation (60 minutes)

• Compensation, equity, and logistics
• Address any remaining questions or concerns
• Decision time for both parties

Timeline:
2-3 weeks from first call to offer

About The Founder

7 years software engineering experience. Built WalnutPOS over the past 7 months and tested with pilot restaurants in Pakistan. Now launching in UK.

One Last Thing

This role isn't for everyone. It's for someone who:

• Wants to build something from zero, not manage something established
• Sees uncertainty as exciting, not stressful
• Values impact and ownership over title and salary
• Is ready to work harder than they ever have

If you're reading this and thinking "this sounds crazy but I'm interested"—perfect. That's exactly the right reaction.

Let's build something significant together.