RIOT
San Mateo, CA · Working globally

RIOT

Retail Internet of Things · riot.technology

I build the tech that lives behind the counter.

David Salisbury — 25 years in retail and hospitality technology. Point of sale, payments, loyalty, connected hardware, and wallet. I help teams design products that survive a real store on a real Saturday morning, and I now do the same for AI features that have to earn their keep.

6M+Units shipped
worldwide
30+Hardware product
launches led
25,000Merchants on a SaaS
platform I co-founded
20+Countries
and languages

What you can hire me for

Four ways in
IOT

Connected product development

Hardware and software that has to phone home, update itself, and keep working when the Wi-Fi in the back office doesn't. I've taken 30+ models from whiteboard through sourcing, certification, manufacturing and a global channel — and I know which corners cost you later.
  • Device + cloud architecture
  • Sourcing & supplier networks
  • Certification
  • Manufacturing handoff
  • Mesh networking
POS

POS & payments ecosystem strategy

Payments, loyalty and the point of sale treated as one system instead of three vendors. Kiosk and KDS rollouts, third-party delivery, SoftPOS and tap-on-phone, and the API layer that lets everyone downstream actually read the data.
  • Clover · PAX · Kozen · Landi
  • Worldpay · TSYS · First Data
  • Kiosk & KDS
  • SoftPOS / tap-on-phone
  • POS data sharing
WLT

Wallet passes & digital receipts

Getting a pass into Apple Wallet or Google Wallet is the easy part. Making it fire at the terminal, in the lane, at the moment of the scan is the part I've actually shipped — Apple VAS and Google Smart Tap deployments in the US and Australia, plus a digital receipt platform that reached 25,000 merchants.
  • Apple VAS
  • Google Smart Tap
  • NFC tap-to-engage
  • Digital receipts
  • Coupon & membership passes
AI/PM

AI product management

Fractional product leadership for teams putting AI into a real workflow. Scoping what the model should and shouldn't own, writing the evals, choosing the one use case worth shipping first, and keeping the roadmap honest about what works today. I build the prototype myself — Claude, Python, Android Studio, Postman — so the conversation starts with something running.
  • Use-case selection
  • Evals & quality bars
  • AI-assisted development
  • API integration
  • Python · Postman · Android Studio
  • Team mentorship

Currently building

Venture
OmniQpon®

A digital slingshot for independent retail. OmniQpon turns a barcode scan into a wallet coupon, a retail-media moment, and a measurable brand event — without touching the POS.

The idea is borrowed from payments. EFTPOS put money on a universal rail so any terminal could take a card without the merchant touching the payment rails. ECTPOS does the same for coupon transactions: any point of service, no integration, deployed in minutes.

omniqpon.com →
Retailers
An answer to corporate marketing muscle — and access to brand budgets.
Brands
Transact directly with shoppers at independents, with live scan data for real ROAS.
Venues
Secure digital membership, coupons, ticketing and access at every point of service.
Shoppers
Join once, save everywhere. Offers land in the phone's wallet — no app to download.

About me

The short version

Over 25 years in global marketing and product development, almost all of it in retail technology.

I started on the Asia-Pacific side of the business, building Star Micronics' Australian operation, then moved into global product development and ran an internal SaaS startup — Star Cloud Services — to 25,000 merchants in 20+ countries. Fivestars, and then SumUp after the acquisition, put me on the merchant side of the counter: loyalty, payments, kiosk, and enterprise POS rollouts.

These days I write the prototype as well as the spec. AI-assisted development means a product idea can be a running app in an afternoon — which changes what “early” means, and changes who needs to be in the room.

RIOT is how I do that work now — independently, with a small number of teams at a time, close enough to the product to be useful.

Developing solutions that combine payments, loyalty, and POS integration with an IoT focus is, without doubt, the most fulfilling place to be — a culmination of a lifetime spent building and delivering retail technology. — David Salisbury

What I’ve actually shipped

Capability · and where it landed
Wallet

Passes that fire at the terminal

“As a cashier, I shouldn’t have to ask for a phone number. The loyalty ID should arrive with the tap.”

Where it shipped Apple VAS and Google Smart Tap wallet pass solutions, deployed through the ISV and VAR channel in the USA and Australia.
Wallet

Digital receipts without an email address

“As a shopper, I want the receipt on my phone without handing over my email or downloading an app.”

Where it shipped Co-founded and scaled a digital receipt platform to 25,000+ merchants across 20+ countries and 20+ languages — total build cost under $12M.
Wallet

Coupon transactions on a universal rail

“As an independent retailer, I want a brand-funded offer to redeem at my counter without touching my POS.”

Where it shipped ECTPOS — the barcode scan becomes a wallet coupon and a measurable brand moment. In market now as OmniQpon.
POS

Kiosk, KDS and delivery in one queue

“As a multi-unit operator, I want orders from the kiosk, the counter and third-party delivery to land on the same kitchen screen.”

Where it shipped Gong Cha, 300+ locations — delivered ahead of schedule and under budget, at close to 100% SLA, with the KDS rebuilt around an Expeditor mode.
POS

Loyalty inside the payment flow

“As a merchant, I don’t want a second tablet on my counter just to run a loyalty programme.”

Where it shipped Fivestars Pay + Loyalty integrated on the Clover platform and deployed across the US merchant base.
POS

Taking a card with no terminal

“As a small merchant, I want to accept a card on the phone that is already in my pocket.”

Where it shipped SoftPOS and tap-on-phone strategy at SumUp — removing terminal dependency at the point of interaction.
Data

POS data out, in real time

“As a franchise operator, I want tonight’s numbers in my own analytics stack, not a spreadsheet at the end of the month.”

Where it shipped Architected an API framework for real-time POS data sharing with third parties — analytics, digital signage, payroll and tax reporting interoperability.
Data

Scan and sell, without building a catalog

“As a convenience store, I want to scan a barcode and have the item priced without typing in four thousand SKUs.”

Where it shipped Master catalog programme at SumUp. A comparable capability is now marketed by Toast as a differentiator.
Build

Prototypes that run, not decks

“As a founder, I want to see the thing actually working before I commit a sprint to it.”

Where it shipped OmniQpon’s ECTPOS platform — and this site — built hands-on with Claude, Python, Android Studio and Postman. A product manager who can put the working version in front of you.
Build · API

Integrations specified by working calls

“As an engineering lead, I want the integration spec to arrive as a Postman collection I can run, not a Word document I have to interpret.”

Where it shipped Integration and partner programmes across Clover, PAX, Kozen, Landi and the Worldpay, TSYS and First Data payfac stack — plus Franpos, Tiller, Pointsoft and Pi Electronic.
Hardware

Peripherals that behave the same everywhere

“As an ISV, I need the printer to behave identically on Android, iOS and Windows, in twenty countries.”

Where it shipped 30+ hardware models and over 6 million units shipped globally. Set the interoperability model for POS peripherals across Star, Epson and the major vendors.
Hardware

Turning a box into a solution

“As a retailer, I want the device on my counter to do something my competitor’s box cannot.”

Where it shipped Linerless printing, barcode and age verification, and digital signage driven live from POS data — across the North American product roadmap.

Patents

  • BYOD Wi-Fi Management
  • Digital Receipts Time Stamp

Stages & shows

  • NRF
  • RSPA — speaker
  • NRA · Computex · EuroCIS

Toolchain

  • Claude · AI-assisted dev
  • Python · Postman
  • Android Studio · iOS · Windows

Built at

  • SumUp · Fivestars
  • Star Cloud Services
  • Star Micronics · US, AU, JP

Worked across

  • Japan · Australia · Singapore
  • UK · France · Germany
  • USA · Hong Kong · Malaysia
Contact

Tell me what you're building.

A long engagement, a short one, or a single call to work out whether the thing is worth doing at all. Any of those is fine.

San Mateo, California · +1 415 770 2001