Tripleseat appoints Alex Hails as Chief Product Officer. March 25, 2026 Alex Hails Tripleseat, the premier event-sales and management platform serving restaurants, hotels, and unique venues, today announced the appointment of Alex Hails as Chief Product Officer. In this role, Hails will oversee Tripleseat's product strategy and design, with a focus on advancing practical AI capabilities that help hospitality teams respond faster, book more events, and run them more efficiently. "Alex brings a rare combination of product vision and real-world hospitality experience that will strengthen our next-generation events management platform," said Michelle Fischer, CEO of Tripleseat. "He spent nearly a decade working in restaurants before transitioning into technology development, giving him a deep, operator-first understanding of the challenges our customers face every day. That perspective, paired with his success leading high-impact product teams, will be invaluable as we continue building tools that make event teams faster, smarter, and more efficient. Alex will help us bring AI into the Tripleseat platform in a way that is practical for our customers and meaningful for revenue growth." Hails joins Tripleseat from Dutchie, the leading cannabis technology platform, where he served as Senior Vice President of Product & Design and led the expansion of the company's vertical SaaS offering into a multi-product platform, more than doubling the size of the business. Previously, he spent six years at Toast, joining as a founding member of Toast Capital and scaling its embedded fintech products across lending, payments, and banking, helping grow the brand into a multi-billion-dollar public company. As Chief Product Officer, Hails will partner closely with Tripleseat's executive team to accelerate product innovation, improve the user experience, and advance AI-powered capabilities across lead management, event workflows, and customer decision-making. "I'm thrilled to join Tripleseat and an incredible team that is so deeply passionate about hospitality and event management," said Hails. "As the category leader in event sales and management, Tripleseat has a unique foundation to unlock meaningful AI innovations that will help operators focus on the guest experience and build more successful businesses. My focus will be on listening to our customers and accelerating innovation that makes events more profitable, efficient, and meaningful for both venues and their guests." About Tripleseat Tripleseat is the leader in Event Management for Venues, providing software built by hospitality professionals to support event teams. Trusted by over 19,000 venues, Tripleseat helps streamline operations, reduce complexity, and turn pressure into profit. Learn more at www.tripleseat.com

Dutchie turns everyday cannabis purchases into action with "Round Up the Change" Table of contents show. A new chapter for cannabis commerce and accountability. The legal cannabis industry continues to mature, and with that growth comes a renewed focus on responsibility, accountability, and long-term repair. This week, Dutchie announced the launch of Round Up the Change, a new checkout feature designed to transform spare change into sustained funding for cannabis reform and justice initiatives. Round Up the Change allows dispensary customers to round up their purchase total at checkout, directing the difference to nonprofit organizations and industry associations working to address the lasting harms of cannabis criminalization. The program is available across both in-store and e-commerce transactions, making participation easy, voluntary, and built directly into the existing retail experience. At scale, the implications are significant. Dutchie processes more than one million transactions per day across its platform. Even small, optional round-ups have the potential to generate millions of dollars annually for legalization advocacy, clemency efforts, expungement programs, and reentry support. Grounded in cannabis history and grassroots advocacy. Cannabis legalization did not emerge in a vacuum. The industry was shaped by decades of activism, community organizing, and direct action aimed at ending prohibition and reducing the human cost of enforcement. Dutchie's new initiative acknowledges that history and builds a modern funding mechanism aligned with those original values. According to Chris Ostrowski, Chief Technology Officer at Dutchie, the program is intentionally simple. By embedding advocacy into the checkout flow, Round Up the Change removes friction while empowering consumers to support reform as part of their everyday purchasing behavior. This approach reflects a broader shift within the cannabis sector, where technology platforms are increasingly expected to support more than efficiency and compliance. They are also being asked to help move the industry toward ethical growth and shared accountability. Strategic partnerships focused on real outcomes. Round Up the Change launches with a carefully selected group of nonprofit and industry partners whose work directly addresses cannabis-related injustices. The nonprofit partners include Mission Green, founded by Weldon Angelos, and Last Prisoner Project. Both organizations focus on clemency, sentencing reform, expungement, and support for individuals still incarcerated or facing barriers due to past cannabis convictions. Industry associations participating at launch include the U.S. Cannabis Roundtable and the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association, groups actively engaged in legislative reform and policy advocacy at both state and federal levels. Each partner addresses a different layer of the cannabis justice ecosystem, from direct legal intervention to long-term policy change. Together, they create a funding network designed to deliver measurable outcomes rather than symbolic gestures. Why checkout donations matter in cannabis. Checkout-based donations are not new in retail, but their application within cannabis carries unique weight. Unlike many consumer industries, cannabis operates within a regulatory and historical context defined by criminalization, over-policing, and unequal enforcement. For decades, cannabis prohibition disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities through arrests, incarceration, and lasting economic consequences. Even as legalization spreads, many individuals continue to face restricted access to employment, housing, education, and capital because of prior convictions. Round Up the Change directly addresses this gap. It channels legal cannabis revenue toward repairing damage caused by policies that once defined the industry itself. The model recognizes that legalization without repair leaves unfinished business. Retailers embrace a values-aligned model. Several large, multi-state operators have already signed on as launch partners, viewing Round Up the Change as an organic extension of cannabis culture rather than an add-on. JARS Cannabis COO Raymond Abro described the initiative as a recognition of privilege. Legal access to cannabis remains unavailable to many people who were punished for the same activity now generating billions in revenue. Giving customers a simple way to contribute helps bridge that divide without disrupting the shopping experience. Ascend Wellness Holdings CEO Sam Brill echoed this sentiment, highlighting how the program complements existing social equity initiatives. Ascend's Co-Lab program focuses on community-level impact, and Round Up the Change allows customers to participate directly in that mission through everyday purchases. For retailers, the program offers more than reputational value. It creates a structured, transparent pathway to support reform without requiring separate fundraising campaigns or operational complexity. Designed for scale and simplicity. One of the most notable aspects of Round Up the Change is how seamlessly it integrates into Dutchie's existing infrastructure. Retailers can enable the feature across in-store point-of-sale systems and online ordering platforms, ensuring consistent participation regardless of how customers shop. The opt-in design respects consumer choice while making participation intuitive. There are no additional steps, no external links, and no need for separate donations. Customers see the option, decide in seconds, and complete their purchase as usual. This simplicity is key to the program's potential scale. With over 6,500 cannabis businesses using Dutchie across the United States and Canada, the cumulative impact could reshape how reform initiatives are funded across the industry. Sustained funding for long-term reform. Advocacy organizations often face inconsistent funding cycles that limit their ability to plan and execute long-term strategies. Round Up the Change introduces a recurring, transaction-based funding stream tied directly to legal cannabis commerce. Saphira Galoob, CEO of the U.S. Cannabis Roundtable, emphasized the importance of sustained support for policy reform efforts, particularly at the federal level. Legislative progress requires ongoing resources, research, and engagement, not one-time donations. Similarly, leaders at Mission Green and Last Prisoner Project point to the continued incarceration of individuals for cannabis offenses as evidence that legalization alone is insufficient. Reliable funding enables clemency campaigns, legal advocacy, and direct support services to operate at the scale the problem demands. Accountability as a core industry metric. The cannabis industry is increasingly evaluated not only on revenue growth, but on how it addresses the consequences of its past. Programs like Round Up the Change represent a shift toward embedding accountability directly into business operations rather than treating it as a separate initiative. By normalizing reform funding at checkout, Dutchie positions accountability as a shared responsibility between platforms, retailers, and consumers. The approach avoids performative gestures and instead focuses on practical, repeatable action. Importantly, Dutchie also allows retailers to request additional nonprofit partners, creating flexibility for region-specific or mission-aligned organizations to participate as the program expands. A broader signal to the cannabis market. Round Up the Change sends a clear message to the broader cannabis ecosystem. Technology platforms are no longer neutral infrastructure. They shape behavior, influence priorities, and determine what gets funded at scale. As the industry continues to professionalize, programs like this may become standard expectations rather than exceptions. Consumers are increasingly values-driven, and retailers are seeking ways to align commerce with community impact without compromising efficiency. Dutchie's initiative demonstrates that ethical growth and operational excellence are not mutually exclusive. When designed thoughtfully, they reinforce each other. Availability and next steps. Round Up the Change is now available to eligible Dutchie retailers nationwide. Retailers interested in participating or proposing additional nonprofit partners can contact their Dutchie representative for enrollment details.

Dutchie, the cannabis technology platform, has launched Round Up the Change, a checkout feature allowing dispensary customers to donate spare change to organisations advancing cannabis justice reform and legalisation. The programme partners with nonprofits Mission Green and Last Prisoner Project, plus industry associations including the US Cannabis Roundtable and Michigan Cannabis Industry Association. These groups focus on expungement, sentencing reform and addressing consequences of cannabis criminalisation. With over one million daily transactions on its platform, Dutchie estimates the programme could generate millions annually for legal advocacy, clemency initiatives and reentry programmes. Leading retailers JARS Cannabis and Ascend Wellness Holdings have enrolled as launch partners. The feature is now available to eligible Dutchie retailers nationwide across in-store and e-commerce transactions.