Hospitality Rewards & Payment Platform
Mucudu is a hospitality super-app that turns a night out into a seamless, rewarding experience for both patrons and venues. Built by veteran restaurateurs Zenita O’Neill and James Gallagher, it wraps loyalty points, fee-free payments, venue discovery and shared tabs into one pocket-friendly tool, giving bars and restaurants a low-friction way to attract, serve and retain guests while keeping costs to a minimum.
Client
Mucudu
Year
2023
Services
Product Design
Information Architecture
Strategy
Venture Validation
Go to Market
THE PROBLEM
Before partnering with Mayfly, Mucudu’s $400 k MVP had stalled: maintenance costs were spiralling, the product offered only a venue directory and “shout-a-mate” gift feature, and the lack of integrated payments made onboarding venues—and convincing investors—nearly impossible. Years in development limbo left the founders watching competitors edge ahead while their own concept struggled to scale.
THE SOLUTION
Mayfly scrapped the legacy codebase and started fresh, running user-story workshops to re-center the product on what regulars and venue owners actually value: instant rewards, friction-free checkout and social sharing. A new UI made earning and spending points effortless, while a custom payment gateway—built from the ground up to integrate with leading POS systems Doshii and ImPos—eliminated middle-man fees, enabling true zero-cost transactions for both customer and venue.
HOW WE GO THERE
High-fidelity prototypes let James pitch the rebooted app to pilot venues and marquee partners such as Heineken, Lion and Guinness before a single line of production code shipped. Iterative sprints translated feedback from bartenders and patrons into thumb-reach navigation, one-tap tab sharing and QR-based checkout. A near-zero-fee payment flow was stress-tested in live service, while Mayfly’s own $50 k investment signalled confidence to external investors and opened doors for strategic brand tie-ins. On launch night, 50 users signed up organically; within weeks the count passed 3 000, validating the new direction and securing more than ten national brand partnerships.
"I would highly recommend the Mayfly Ventures team; they’re professional, attentive and deliver high-quality work every time. They took Mucudu from a stalled MVP to a live platform with thousands of users and marquee partners, and we’re excited to keep building together."
Zenita O’Neill / Co-Founder
INSIGHTS
Mucudu proves that the hospitality experience improves when payments, perks and discovery live in the same place. By collapsing loyalty, checkout and friend-to-friend “shouts” into a single QR scan, the app swaps clunky wallet moments for a frictionless flow that keeps queues moving and customers smiling. Zero processing fees align incentives—venues are eager to promote the app because it saves them money, and patrons adopt it because every round earns rewards. Brand collaborations add a layer of exclusivity without diluting the venue’s identity, while the custom gateway’s POS integrations future-proof the model for national—and eventually international—rollouts.
