TipJar TV lets bar and restaurant customers pay to take control of a TV, for however long they want, right from their phone. A new revenue stream for venues, powered by a QR code and a patent-pending time-based control system.
Bars have TVs. Customers want to watch their team. Staff can't keep up. The problem is real, it's viral, and nobody has built the fix. Until now.
"The bartender trying to figure out how to find TruTV on the bar TV"
"Bartenders the second their hands touch a TV remote"
"Me: please change the TV to the Georgia game. 14yo employee: sorry they told me I can't change the TVs. Me: does that rule change for … ten dollars? 14yo: it sure does"
"Ahhh I'm a bartender at sports bar and I don't know how tv remotes work"
The pattern is everywhere.
Over 4 million people watched a meme about bartenders losing their minds the second they touch a TV remote. A $6B sportsbook brand jokes publicly about staff digging through equipment racks to change channels. The average sports bar makes $39K in profit a year, and their TVs generate zero revenue while creating daily friction. TipJar removes the bartender from the equation entirely and turns that friction into a revenue stream.
And bars can always stay in control.
Need to lock a TV to the big game? Restrict certain screens during a private event? The bar owner has a dashboard to override, lock, or restrict any TV at any time. Customers can only control what the venue allows.
TipJar isn't a concept or a pitch deck. It's a complete, working system, provisioned on real hardware, secured with enterprise-grade encryption, and tested end-to-end.
See how TipJar generates revenue and how easy it is to manage, by stepping inside a real venue night. Toggle between the bar owner admin view and the patron phone experience. When a patron selects a TV, it activates on the floor map in real time.
$20,000+ in personal capital and 250+ hours of hands-on work, before asking anyone else to believe in this. Two co-founders with the exact skill sets the problem requires.
Dylon runs a successful pool services company with 50+ active clients generating $10K+ in monthly recurring revenue. He knows how to walk into a room, build trust, and close, which is exactly what landing the first venues requires. At TipJar, he leads sales, venue partnerships, and hardware installation.
Myles is a software engineer with 7+ years of full-stack experience shipping production systems across enterprise automation, game development (PS4/PC multiplayer titles shipped on Steam), and cloud infrastructure. He built TipJar's entire technical stack. When specialized hardware expertise was needed, he brought in the right people to do it right. At TipJar, he owns the product roadmap, engineering, and technology decisions.
Everything below exists and works today. This isn't a roadmap, it's a receipt.
End-to-end working demo on real hardware. A patron scans a QR code, pays, and the TV changes automatically, in under a second, over an encrypted VPN. Tested and confirmed on both DirecTV H24 (SHEF API) and Roku (ECP). Portable demo kit sets up in 10 minutes: GL.iNet edge gateway, DirecTV receiver, Roku TV, laminated QR codes.
Provisional patent filed covering the full TipJar invention: QR-triggered TV control, venue-administered session management, time-based channel locking with split-payment monetization, and the Personality Module USB provisioning system. The patent documents the exact system we built: the claim and the product match. Priority date established. Non-provisional filing within 12 months.
Professionally produced 90-second 3D animated video covering the problem, the product flow, and the revenue model. Script and storyboard approved, animator hired, final render delivered. Posted to YouTube. This is the video embedded at the top of this page: it's how we explain TipJar to anyone in 90 seconds.
Built and deployed at tipjartv.com, a full investor and partner landing page covering the problem, the solution, technical architecture, IP status, and founder profiles. Includes an interactive Busy Night Bar Simulator as the centerpiece demo: toggle between the bar owner dashboard (live TV floor map, revenue tracker, customizable per-TV pricing) and the patron phone experience (QR scan → channel select → payment flow). When a patron selects a TV in phone view, it activates on the bar map in real time. Also includes a live request trace showing exactly how a scan routes cloud → VPN → edge gateway → TV in under a second.
Active outreach underway with Austin bars and restaurants for pilot deployments. We are in early conversations with multiple venues and working toward signed Letters of Intent as proof of demand.
Whether you're an investor, a venue owner, a DirecTV or Roku exec, or just someone who's watched one too many bartenders crawl into an AV closet, we'd love to connect.