Microblink interviews Gratuity Solutions Co-Founder Aleks Stepanovich

In the rapidly evolving world of financial technology, the fair distribution of gratuities remains one of hospitality’s most fragmented operational challenges. That’s why Gratuity Solutions built an engine that automated tip pooling and distribution for enterprise hospitality at scale. Since 2009, the company has processed more than $16 billion in payouts across 15,000 locations.

Like Microblink, whose identity intelligence platform normalizes thousands of document types across any device or platform. Gratuity Solutions sits between a restaurant’s existing POS and payroll systems, normalizing data across hundreds of legacy architectures to automate tip calculation and distribution into a single, auditable record. Microblink sat down with Co-Founder Aleks Stepanovich to discuss what 15 years of leadership looks like and what our audience can learn from their success.

Q: Microblink is designed to work across any platform or device. You have described
Gratuity Solutions as system agnostic regarding POS and payroll. What is the biggest
technical challenge in building a source of truth engine that has to speak to hundreds of
different legacy architectures?

Aleks Stepanovich: The primary challenge is data fragmentation. Just as Microblink must
interpret thousands of different document types globally, we must ingest data from hundreds of
legacy Point of Sale (POS) systems, each with its own unique logic and data structure. To be
truly system agnostic, we had to build a proprietary engine that acts as a universal translator.
That engine now runs on more than 150 proprietary algorithms and 1.7 millions lines of code
with 59 direct POS integrations that cover the vast majority of operators in the industry. The goal
is to ensure that regardless of the hardware a restaurant uses, our PayData platform can
extract, normalize, and validate that information in real time. We provide a single version of the
truth that eliminates the need for manual CSV exports or redundant data entry, which saves our
operators an average of 8 or more hours per week on payroll administration alone.

Q: Your background is in Cybernetics and Mathematics, yet you are solving a very
human problem in hospitality. How does your scientific background influence the way
you approach fairness in the workplace?

Aleks Stepanovich: Mathematics is the ultimate tool for fairness. In hospitality, disputes often
arise because of “black box” calculations where employees do not understand how their take
home pay was determined. By applying cybernetic principles (the study of control and
communication in systems), we can create feedback loops that ensure every cent is accounted
for based on logical rules like points, hours, and roles. Science allows us to remove human bias
and error from the equation, which is how we have been able to deliver 99.9% payroll accuracy
across the platform. When an employee knows the system is mathematically sound and
transparent, it builds a foundation of trust that is essential for a healthy workplace culture.

Q: Microblink aims for sub second scanning because speed equals trust. Gratuity
Solutions is moving toward real time digital payouts. How does moving from a weekly
paycheck to instant gratification change the morale and retention of the hospitality
workforce?

Aleks Stepanovich: Speed is a massive differentiator for retention. In a high turnover industry,
providing an employee with their earnings at the end of every shift rather than every two weeks
provides immediate tangible value. It reduces financial stress and aligns the effort of the work
with the reward of the pay. Much like a user feels a sense of relief when their ID is scanned
successfully in seconds, a server feels a sense of security when they see their digital balance
update immediately after their shift ends. We’ve seen this translate into measurable outcomes;
many of our clients see an increase of ~8.5-31% in average tips.

Q: We have seen a massive shift toward digital ID and digital payments. As cash
disappears from the hospitality industry, what is the next frontier for Gratuity Solutions
in the digital payment ecosystem?

Aleks Stepanovich: The next frontier is the total convergence of identity and payment. As cash
becomes obsolete, the speed of the payout becomes the new currency. We are moving toward
a world where a server finishes a shift and their earnings are instantly pushed to a digital wallet.
This mirrors the shift in identity verification where users expect instant validation. We are also
launching person to person tipping solutions, such as for valet or service staff, where digital
payments flow directly into the organization’s automated pool without a physical dollar ever
changing hands.

Q: If you had to give a Chief Risk Officer at a fintech or financial institution one piece of
advice about building digital payment infrastructure that actually earns employee and
customer trust, what would it be?

Aleks Stepanovich: Stop treating transparency as a compliance checkbox. Whether you are
verifying a customer’s identity or distributing a server’s tips, the moment someone cannot
understand why a system made a decision, you have lost their trust. The same principle that
drives us to make every cent of a tip pool auditable and explainable applies directly to identity
and payments infrastructure. Your risk models, your payout logic, your fraud thresholds all need
to be legible to the people they affect. A CRO who can explain their system’s decision-making in
plain language, not just to regulators but to employees and end users, is building something that
will last. Opaque systems invite skepticism. Transparent ones build loyalty, and in high-stakes
financial environments, loyalty is the ultimate risk mitigation tool. Our clients see an average of
6.5x ROI on the platform, and a meaningful portion of that return comes from trust that
transparency builds with staff, operators, and guests.