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☕ DrinkCoffeeAndProfit
Smart money moves before breakfast
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Inspiration Quote for the Day
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”
— Lao Tzu
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The Morning Ritual
Americans Paid $150 in Tips Last Year They Didn’t Want to Leave. The iPad Made Them Do It.
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I watched a woman at the coffee counter last Sunday stare at the iPad screen for eleven seconds. She had ordered a black coffee. Nothing else. The barista handed it to her already poured. The screen turned toward her and asked: `18%`, `20%`, `25%`, or custom. She tapped `20%`. On a `$5.50` coffee. That is a `$1.10` tip for someone who pressed a button and turned around.
She looked at me after and shrugged. “I didn’t want to look cheap.” She is not alone. And the number she just added to her year is bigger than she thinks.
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· · · Partner Message · · ·
| Share price deadline |
$0.52/share |
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Pre-IPO window
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Most investors meet a company on its first day of public trading, after the early pricing is gone. Mode Mobile is still in the window before that. Here is the difference, side by side.
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Public market (later) |
Pre-IPO (now) |
| Entry price |
Set by the market |
$0.52/share, fixed |
| Price movement |
Volatile, daily |
Fixed in this round |
| Early bonus |
None |
Up to 20% bonus shares |
| Structure |
Exchange listed |
Reg A+ SEC-qualified |
| Window |
Open-ended |
Share price deadline |
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The company in the right-hand column is real: 490M+ users, $115M+ in revenue, number one on Deloitte’s fastest-growing software list, ~60,000+ investors already in, and the Nasdaq ticker $MODE reserved ahead of a planned listing. The $0.52 share price deadline.
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invest.modemobile.com · $1,300 minimum
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This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation A+ offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com. Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur. The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period. *Mode revenue and EBITDA numbers includes full year revenue and EBITDA of businesses acquired in 2025. Investing involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. This is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities.
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In One Sip
► `81%` of Americans say tipping culture has gotten out of control. `42%` now say the U.S. should ban tipping entirely.
► The average American paid roughly `$150` in tips last year they felt were unnecessary. `64%` tipped out of guilt even when they received poor service. `45%` tipped just to avoid looking cheap.
► Consumers are now prompted to tip an average of `10` times per month. `59%` feel compelled to leave a tip when a digital screen faces them, down from `66%` last year.
► `35%` of consumers have scaled back tipping in `2026`. Coffee shop tipping dropped from `46%` to `39%`. Fast food from `27%` to `22%`. Delivery drivers getting `20%` or more fell from `23%` to `15%`.
► Despite the pullback, the actual sit-down restaurant tip has barely moved: median `19.4%` in late `2024`, essentially flat since `2019`. The fatigue is not about restaurants. It is about the screen at every counter that never used to ask.
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Why It Matters for Your Money
Start with the math. You buy coffee three times a week and tip `20%` each time on a `$5.50` order. That is `$1.10` per visit, `$171` over a year. Add the taco counter, the smoothie place, the bakery that turned the iPad when all you bought was a muffin. Counter tips alone add up to `$500` to `$800` a year for transactions that never involved table service.
The issue is not generosity. It is design. Payment companies build the tip prompt into their software. Default options start at `18%`. The “No Tip” button is there but placed where choosing it feels like a public rejection with the worker watching.
`64%` of Americans say businesses use customer tips to replace wages they should be paying. You are not tipping for service. You are subsidizing a payroll decision made by someone not standing at that counter.
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The Wealth Angle
There are two tipping economies in America now and they follow completely different rules.
The first is the sit-down restaurant, where servers in many states earn below minimum wage with tips closing the gap. The median tip is `19.4%` and has held steady for years. That tip matters. It is a real part of someone’s income.
The second is the counter economy: coffee shops, fast casual, food trucks, self-checkout. Workers here typically earn full hourly wages. The tip prompt is not filling a wage gap. It is generating extra revenue. Some goes to the worker. Some goes into a pool. You have no way to know which.
The `25%` preset on a pour-over coffee is not a social norm. It is a revenue strategy wearing the costume of one.
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☕ Key Insight:
Americans spent `$150` in tips last year they did not want to leave. The sit-down restaurant tip is steady and earned. The counter tip is a software feature designed to turn guilt into revenue. Know the difference.
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Coffee Break Move
At a sit-down restaurant: Tip `18%` to `20%` for good service. The worker depends on it. That has not changed and should not.
At a counter with an iPad: Ask yourself one question: Did this person do something beyond handing me what I ordered? If yes, tip what you feel. If no, hitting “No Tip” or “Custom” and entering `$1` is not rude. It is honest. The screen wants you to feel otherwise. That is by design.
The woman at the coffee counter caught my eye again on the way out. I told her about the `$150` number. She did the math on her phone. Three coffees a week, `20%` each time. `$171` a year. She looked at the screen and said, “That is a whole pair of shoes.” Next time, she said, she is pressing custom.
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