Australian hospitality is a small world. Owners in Paddington likely know owners in Manly, word travels fast in both directions, and your reputation arrives before you do.

Operating with the feel of a startup alongside the backing of an international brand, Toast's Australian team is establishing its local footprint and defining its strategy in this market. Alex P., a Senior Territory Account Executive in Sydney, and Amanda N., an Account Executive in Adelaide, tell us what that actually feels like day to day.

A Global Brand With a Startup Feel

Both Alex and Amanda joined for more or less the same reason: the chance to get in early on something big.

"Toast has built an incredible presence in the U.S., and bringing that foundation to Australia at the ground-floor stage doesn't come around often," Alex says. "What sealed it was the product itself — when you demo Toast to an operator and watch their face change, you know you're selling something that genuinely solves problems."

For Amanda, who spent more than a decade in hospitality and field sales before joining, it was the combination that stood out. Toast has the scale, experience, and resources of a global business, while in Australia we're still building, experimenting, and creating something from the ground up. You don't often get those two things together."

Ask either of them to describe the team in a phrase and you get variations on the same idea. Alex: "Scrappy in the best way." Amanda: "Small but mighty."

"Everyone wears a few hats, everyone's opinion gets heard, and wins get celebrated loudly," Alex says. "It genuinely feels like a startup inside a company that runs like a well-oiled machine."

Trust Is the Whole Job

Selling in a tight-knit market changes the work. These discussions carry genuine weight given the everyday operating challenges venue owners face — tight margins and rising labor costs. “You're not just showing features,” Alex says. “You're helping an operator streamline their operations and they'll tell you exactly what they think within thirty seconds, which makes the job faster and more fun."

Amanda sees the same thing from Adelaide, and it's what drew her in. "There's such a strong sense of personality and pride in Australian hospitality. Every venue has its own story, its own way of doing things, and people who have poured so much into building their business."

"Trust is everything," she adds. "My role is about being someone operators can have an honest conversation with."

That's also why the handoffs matter. "When I close a venue, I'm not tossing it over a fence," Alex says. "I'm briefing the Onboarding team on everything I've learned about how that venue runs, what they're worried about, and what 'success' looks like for the owner." Because the team is small, the feedback loop is fast: when a customer needs extra support, the process gets fixed, not just the account.

Writing the Playbook

Being early has lots of upside. "You're not just running a playbook used by a long list of previous reps," Alex says. "You're helping write it." The team shapes how it goes after territories, how it positions against local competitors, and how it talks about the product for an Australian audience.

The global machine is still there behind it — sales methodology training, Solutions Engineers who go deep on technical questions, and leaders who have scaled this exact motion in other markets.

"The amount I've learned and the growth I've had in such a short time has honestly been incredible," Amanda says. "There's always another part of the business to understand, another person to learn from, and another opportunity to grow."

Why Now

"We're still early enough in our journey that you can genuinely have an impact to help shape what Toast becomes here," Amanda says. "But we also have the backing, experience and resources of a global technology company."

"And there's something pretty special about knowing you're joining at a point where you can look back one day and say, 'I was part of building Toast in Australia.’”

Interested in learning more aobut life at Toast in Australia? Check out our open roles here.