Today’s Killer Startup: Toothpick
Elevator Pitch
Toothpick tells you exactly how much you tip your server, depending on their gender.
Why It’s A Killer Startup
While it’s not super obvious from my writing here on KillerStartups, anyone who knows me IRL or knows my work on other sites knows that I’m a card-carrying feminist. I’ve been proudly claiming the “f” word since before the fourth grade when my parents had to change my class because the teacher wouldn’t stop calling us “guys” and every time she said it I would get into an argument with her about how I wasn’t a guy.
While my views have become considerably more nuanced since my time in Ms. Lane’s class, I’m still all about calling out sexism when I see it and championing women’s rights whenever I can. And, obviously, I love startups, which is why I’m super pumped to share Toothpick with you.
Toothpick looks and functions like a totally normal tipping app – you input your bill and it tells you how much to tip. The difference is that you also tell it the gender of your server and if it’s a woman, Toothpick tells you take 22% off the top.
That 22% represents the wage gap in the United States, where most reports have found that women still make 78 cents to every dollar that men make. The founders of Toothpick are bringing attention to that disparity by utilizing technology in a clever, eye-grabbing way.
I’m all about it.
If you go to Toothpick’s site, you can sign their petition to the make the Equal Rights Amendment – which would guarantee equal rights under the law, regardless of gender, and which was first introduced to Congress in 1923 – a legal amendment to the Constitution.
I’m loving Toothpick because it’s a creative, original way to draw attention to the very real gender inequalities that still exist in the United States. Go over, check it out, download the app, and sign the petition.
Tweetable
Trying to calculate a tip? Better make sure it’s 22% lower for the ladies. #TipThemLess #
