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Ethan Carrion
When I came up with sipskip, I was actually doing another company at the time. I was like, you know what, this one's it. The idea was create something so simple, so seamless that like, if someone thought to copy it, there would be no better way. We basically have a universal digital fast pass. If you're at a bar and it's taking too long to get a drink, you can actually buy a sip skip pass, hold it up and it signals a bartender to come right to you instantly.
Ray Gutierrez
You what?
Narrator
Ethan Carrion is an entrepreneur, tech innovator and the founder of sipskip. Drawing from his passion for solving everyday problems, he is transforming the live entertainment and hospitality experience through technology while inspiring young entrepreneurs to think boldly, act quickly and turn simple ideas into scalable businesses.
Ray Gutierrez
Where does this entrepreneurial spirit come from?
Ethan Carrion
I was actually was raised by two entrepreneurs, my dad especially. He. He's definitely instilled the founder mindset in me. He gave me a book when I was a young age. When I read that book when I was 14, it kind of like switched my mind.
Ray Gutierrez
Oh, for sure.
Ethan Carrion
But I did know since a, since a young kid that I wanted to found a company that was going to disrupt an industry and change the world.
Ray Gutierrez
It spans the globe like a super high is cold Internet Elvis.
Podcast Intro/Outro Voice
Read the time for free. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over until I win the Living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible has happened. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan, open the combo with the lead. You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream.
Ray Gutierrez
Welcome back to another episode of the Living your legacy podcast for inside success. I am Ray Gutierrez. Fresh off our legacy makers conveyor belt is Ethan Carrion. Ethan Carrion is the founder creator of Sip Skip.
Ethan Carrion
Correct.
Ray Gutierrez
I have so many questions. Good thing we're in front of microphones at a podcast, dude. Welcome to the show.
Ethan Carrion
Thank you, man. Thank you for having me.
Ray Gutierrez
I am good friends with the king of beer pong, Jose Sanchez. Apparently he is. I covered his eyes. We were in Vegas and he did the thing. I was mesmerized.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah.
Ray Gutierrez
Is there any connection correlation to what you do and the keens of your mouth and.
Ethan Carrion
Actually there's not. There's not. Other than they both involve alkin. They both involve a lot of alcohol, I would say.
Ray Gutierrez
So you are actually anti alcohol. Is this where this is going?
Ethan Carrion
No.
Ray Gutierrez
Give me the Lord.
Ethan Carrion
So Sip Skip is a platform. We basically have a universal digital fast Pass. We're available at bars, festivals, stadium. If you're at a bar and it's taking too long to get a drink, you can actually buy a sipskit pass. Hold it up. No, it signals a bartender to come right to you instantly.
Ray Gutierrez
You what?
Ethan Carrion
No, correct.
Ray Gutierrez
You did the Disney pass for the Barney.
Ethan Carrion
Fast pass for getting drinks faster, man.
Ray Gutierrez
And I just stopped drinking. Like, well, congratulations, sir.
Ethan Carrion
Thank you. Well, also works at concession stands at, like, festivals and.
Ray Gutierrez
Right on.
Ethan Carrion
And stadiums as well. So they all have, like, SIPs, KIP lanes, and stuff like that.
Ray Gutierrez
Sick. So are you partnering up with, like, homies at Insomniac? Like, what is your philosophy here? Are you going for the festivals?
Ethan Carrion
Yeah. So it started out of this bar concept, but then I was like, this could be a lot bigger than bar concept, especially at these, like, big football games where there's 20 person lines to get a drink or get a bowl of nachos or something like that. I was like, why can't every concession stand have a little sign that says Sips give lane, and you pay $10 to use the lane. Now, the $10 doesn't buy you anything but the convenience of skipping that line, skipping that wait at a bar. But, sir, at a bar, it's kind of cool for the bartenders especially, because when they walk up and redeem a pass, it takes literally two seconds. You just click the pass, click your name. They actually get a portion of that pass directly to their account. So they sign up, they connect themselves to the bars, and they actually earn per skip. Like a doordash driver skip.
Ray Gutierrez
Look, you go. You've got your own verbiage. That's very important.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah, we're. We're trying to make it a household name.
Ray Gutierrez
No, it's going to definitely work. That's why I'm, like, amped for you. I'm just like, what was the origin story? Were you just stuck in a line going, there's got to be a better way? Honestly.
Ethan Carrion
Honestly, you're kind of spot on. I. I went to. I went to lsu, and it was just a night at the bar. Two friends that had a pool table reserved. And then me and another friend were at the bar. And these are. These are really packed bars. And we're just sitting there holding up our cards in the air, waiting for the bartender to go down the line.
Ray Gutierrez
Eye contact icon.
Ethan Carrion
Exactly. Come here, come now. And. And, you know, like, have you ever seen the phone game Heads up, where it's that little flicky thing. It's like. But like, in the middle there's like this blue alluring screen but like it really draws you into the title on the screen. So like I, my idea was like, well, what if there was like something you hold up that like kind of like caught the bartender attention? So that's, that's the kind of idea behind the past. It's this really red alluring screen with like the bar logo in the middle of when, when you do hold it up, it's kind of funny. You, you hold it up and like three heads turn. It's. Whoa, what is that? Yeah, you can't miss it. It's. It's pretty, it's pretty in your face.
Ray Gutierrez
So how do you avoid bar fights in Boston? Because if I'm holding up this in a good grimy bustin bar, I'm going to get my ass kicked. Like, what's the culture like?
Ethan Carrion
The thing is there's subscript. Like if, if a Sip Skip pass is being used in a bar, you're gonna know like there's gonna be signs outside the bar that say, hey, download Sip Skip sip us on Sip Skip. You can also like, like and dislike bars on, on the app. It's like the whole rating system as well. Yeah, yeah. The sipskit Pass is just like a little part of the app, but basically like even on the bar tops, there's like little signs that say like why wait download sips skip get drinks faster. So like it's a way of life. But like the normal like Sip Skip interaction goes. Pass goes up three circle turn their head person gets served instantly. And then like two people go, whoa, what did you just do? And then one of them actually ends up downloading the app and becoming the sip Skipper. Yes.
Ray Gutierrez
Which is awesome. Especially when they're inebriated and they have their liquid courage and everyone's in a completely different mindset and everyone dopamine happy.
Ethan Carrion
Yes.
Ray Gutierrez
Talk about the data science.
Ethan Carrion
Oh yeah.
Ray Gutierrez
Behind the what you're creating. Because yes, now pub crawls are easier, but you now have not democratized. But you've split your clientele. Well, now I have a quality client that I know for a fact is a Skip a skipper.
Ethan Carrion
Correct.
Ray Gutierrez
Therefore they're going to tip better. They are a different tax bracket. They got here in a Lambo sort of a taxi. Like you already can identify that the human science which is where the real money is at. Correct. Talk about how you are just saying correct or nodding with your evil master plan taking away at your head.
Ethan Carrion
No, there's, there's a lot of data. There's a lot of data that goes in the. That's, that's one aspect of it. Yes. Like it's great for the bartenders. They also make a little money on the back end. The cool part is nobody actually knows that the bartenders are making money, right?
Ray Gutierrez
Yeah, of course not.
Ethan Carrion
So they get double tipped. Right on. But the real data comes when users are actually signing up. They select what type of bars they like, whether it's a DJ night, they like live or like maybe like a live music band or like maybe I like food at this bar, karaoke night, whatever. And then you can also select what type of times you like to go out as such. And then we collect that data. We collect that data. It's great for big alcohol companies, all these people. And then also for bars. It's kind of like now it's evolved into this social media platform for bars.
Ray Gutierrez
Yep.
Ethan Carrion
So like no doubt sipskip has all the bars. Let's say I'm this bar. I have my own social media platform on there. Users can sip or skip, which is our rating platform. If I skip, if I sip a bar, it adds to the sip skip score, which is basically just the number of likes. So like if you've been on the app for a while, maybe you have 10,000, maybe 100,000 SIP skip score. Now if I skip a bar, nothing public happens. We don't want any Karens throwing up bad reviews. But there is a box that pops up to where users can type. Well, I didn't like this venue because this, this, that or maybe this bartender or whatever. And that gets submitted directly to the bar's back end for them to take and improve their customer experience. So it's real time data for them.
Ray Gutierrez
Wow.
Ethan Carrion
Another source of data for them is actually they can see like the percentage of the sipper skip on the back end of their stuff. Nothing public, but it's specifically for them. And something we're adding soon is where people can actually follow these venues. You can follow the venues. And so like let's say I have something going, going on that night. I can actually send push notifications directly to my followers through the Sips Give app for non venue.
Ray Gutierrez
Right on. I wouldn't like to call it white labeling, but I almost feel like you can almost get to like, you know, I'm a dj but I almost feel like, well, I have hardcore loyalist crew that come out to see me. Let's create a sip skip line specifically for them, but let's upcharge the out of them because I know my clientele will drop a TH000 cool on a table for 15 minutes. Do you create that experience just for that one divine unicorn? Are you able to just scale to that? It's more asking for a friend, by the way.
Ethan Carrion
Asking for a friend. It's more. It's more venue driven. It's more venue driven. We, we want to keep like we'll have accounts for venues, we'll have accounts for festivals and then we'll have accounts for stadiums. Right on, dude. But yeah, I mean maybe one day it turns into that.
Ray Gutierrez
Yeah, because I'm seeing the gears. Because what you're doing is creating exclusivity. You're creating that private Facebook group, but it just happens to be in a bar. And like there's so many cool people I've met in pubcross, like especially living in San Francisco, you'd have the, the. The reunion of all these cultures. And it's just like such a way because sitting at a bar and introducing yourself in the old fashioned way of buying someone a drink and going yo, eye contact. Here's the human connection. You've sort of kind of created that group now where people can do that in an optimized way. Because now we're all in this part of this cool kids club and folks have been doing this for quite a while. That black card and the check in at this place. And I became the mayor of that Starbucks. And you gamified. But all of these baboons were doing all this in San Francisco. It's just now caught up with everyone else here in Miami and New York where all of these cool gamified ARG experiences are happening. So good on you, dude. How old are you?
Ethan Carrion
23.
Ray Gutierrez
Of course you are.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah. Yeah.
Ray Gutierrez
So how does it feel? Annoying that you got the feature in check and this is just your first bright idea.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah.
Podcast Intro/Outro Voice
Yeah.
Ethan Carrion
Crazy. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. No, I've had it. I've had a lot of ideas, none of them of which have held the weight of sipskip. And so I had to jump on it when I saw it, no question. But I did know since a. Since a young kid that I wanted to found a company that was going to disrupt an industry and change the world. So when I came up with Sip Skip, I was actually doing another company at the time. I was like, you know what? This one's it.
Ray Gutierrez
I was like, yeah, you feel it?
Ethan Carrion
Screw it all in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And don't regret it at all. I'm very excited for the future. We have some, some big deals coming up with some. Some big stadiums.
Ray Gutierrez
So it's just an obvious thing. It's just like, what? The only thing is, is like, you gotta, like, figure out how to just hold on to it because a stadium and go, well, we can just create our own system. Like, that's the difference. We just came. Oh, sip, skip. Sure. Well, now you're a Dallas fan and you get the Dallas line.
Ethan Carrion
Correct. Correct.
Ray Gutierrez
So you're gonna figure, I don't know it. Correct.
Ethan Carrion
We've actually definitely thought about that, creating the app, but we. We made it such a seamless process, especially like with the bartenders being on there. Now if it's in a stadium, you can create stations.
Ray Gutierrez
Y.
Ethan Carrion
Or a festival, you can create stations. The idea behind it was like, oh, well, like, obviously they can just copy it, but it's like, no. Why would you spend six months making an app when this is so seamless? All you have to do is spend 24 hours signing up and it's free.
Ray Gutierrez
It's like a virus. It's just quick.
Ethan Carrion
It's so easy. It's so seamless. And it's. I mean, the UI is great. You can. You can download it and see yourself.
Ray Gutierrez
Attaboy. Yeah.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah. I also have a tech company that makes apps and websites. We run the app ourselves.
Ray Gutierrez
Yeah. So you understand where the eye is looking at, how long you need to keep the data there holding. So when you scroll from the bottom of the phone on top of the phone, you understand what's really happening and.
Ethan Carrion
Correct. We know where that thumbs at. We know that. Thumbs up.
Ray Gutierrez
My Dre drinking buddies used to work at Facebook.
Ethan Carrion
Exactly, exactly.
Ray Gutierrez
So they.
Ethan Carrion
They. They got it. But, yeah, no, the idea was create something so simple, so seamless, that, like, if someone thought to copy it, there would be no better way.
Ray Gutierrez
Yeah.
Ethan Carrion
So.
Ray Gutierrez
And the more podcasts you do, the more you become the face of it. People are going to look at your copycat. Like, no, that's. I already did that. Like, that's already all so good for you. Jumping on it, dude. What are we going to learn from you in your episode? Where does this entrepreneurial spirit come from? Learn to fail quick and fail fast.
Ethan Carrion
Feel quick and fail fast. Yeah, so I was actually was raised by two entrepreneurs. My dad especially. He. He's definitely instilled the founder mindset in me. He gave me a book when I was a young age called Think and Grow Rich when I was 14. Smart dad. Yeah, more dads like that, please. Yeah, he told me I had to read it four times throughout my life, and I Have. And when I read that book when I was 14, it kind of like switched my mind.
Ray Gutierrez
Oh, for sure.
Ethan Carrion
Started. Started getting into like some drop shipping when I was 15, 16. So just kind of being, kind of being raised with that mindset. I, I was just, I really had the fortunate enough to be able to get started early, fast.
Ray Gutierrez
I was just gonna say, you know, how big is your ragtag team? Are you multiple or is it just you who's.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah, like. Yeah, it's, it's a team now for sure. So I've, I, I founded the company at the beginning of this year. I, I brought in, I brought in some people I, I call co founders. They're not technically co founders, but like they're, they're pretty involved for sure. One of them is actually a pretty heavy investor as well. And then we have a couple more investors on top of that, and then we have a couple more internal people do some stuff.
Ray Gutierrez
Yeah, dude. So what's next for you? What happens after the moment? You, you, you push Emily out of the way, out of the way. You walk out that door.
Ethan Carrion
I'm gonna go get a drink. But no, we, I actually have a meeting with the, the Palm Tree crew or Palm Tree Club, whatever.
Ray Gutierrez
Yeah, man.
Ethan Carrion
They, they have a couple clubs across the United States. I was told they have a festival as well, which is cool. But yeah, I have a lunch with them, so that'll maybe cool, man.
Ray Gutierrez
Well, I, I look forward to the moment I run into at a music festival and I give you the cool nod. I'm like, I remember. Yeah, when you made your first billion
Ethan Carrion
we' some s Skip credits.
Ray Gutierrez
Kaching. Kaching, dude. With that, how can people learn more about you? Is it just literally grab an app Store and search you or is there a dot com.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah, so you could, you can go to, you can go to sipskip Instagram. You can go to my Instagram Ethan Carrion. You can go to the App Store. Just literally sip Skip on the App Store or just sip skip.com. it's got its little own explanation, but yeah, I mean, just watch some podcasts, but honestly, just check it out for yourself. I mean the first time someone uses it is. It's honestly the funniest thing ever. They're like, what? Like. I mean, I remember when I was case study testing this before we, we put it on the App Store, but we never promoted it. I had a couple venues testing.
Ray Gutierrez
Yeah.
Ethan Carrion
And I think this was like one of the second activations I ever did. And I had to do it. I was the one at the table, this guy comes up to me, he's like, what is this? And I'm like, oh, well, basically you do this. You walk up to the bar, instant service. He's like, so if you're telling me I hold up this pass, the bartender is going to come right over to me. And I was. And the bar's packed. And I'm like, yeah, right. And, and so he goes up, does the whole thing and then like he gets his drink with like whole thing takes like under two minutes. And he's like, yeah. He looks back at us at the table, he's like, oh my gosh. Comes right back over. He's like, I want to do this
Ray Gutierrez
every time I go to the bar.
Ethan Carrion
And I no joke, watched him do it seven more times that night. And he, every time he did it, he just like got served instantly. And he just like looked at us,
Ray Gutierrez
he was like, oh yeah, dude, the impossible. So you got to do like Valentine's Day verticals where it's like a check in and just like now it's like a Valentine's Day drink. There's all sorts of really, really cool things. Dude. It reminds me of this scene in one of my favorite movies, Vanilla Sky. I'm not sure if you're familiar. There's a scene where he's lucid dreaming and he's in a bar and some dude walks up to him and it's Tom Cruise. And he goes, don't you just wish you just had control over everyone? You have the ability to just tell everyone to shut the up. And he's sitting in a crowded bar and he's looking at the camera. He goes, I just want everyone to shut the up in the entire bar. Goes quiet and turn to him. That's the moment you're creating with. I just want a drink.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah.
Ray Gutierrez
Literally the control of the room.
Ethan Carrion
Yeah.
Ray Gutierrez
And the ability. You can just do it in such a red cup and it's such an easy approach. Dude. Gold.
Ethan Carrion
Thank you, man. I appreciate that.
Ray Gutierrez
Dude, I. You're gonna be, you're gonna do just fine, my friend. I appreciate you for coming onto our pod and carrying so much. For being an amazing legacy God. Galactic builder. This is Ethan Carrion and I am Ray Gutierrez and we are inside success.
Host: Ray Gutierrez
Guest: Ethan Carrion, Founder of SipSkip
Date: June 10, 2026
This episode centers on Ethan Carrion, a 23-year-old entrepreneur who developed SipSkip—a universal digital FastPass for bars, festivals, and stadiums. Through a candid and energetic conversation, host Ray Gutierrez explores Ethan's entrepreneurial origins, the genesis and execution of SipSkip, the technology and user experience behind it, and the broader impact and future potential of this game-changing platform in the hospitality industry.
Listeners are left with a sense of Ethan’s boldness—leaning into simplicity, user experience, and data-driven decision-making—as well as practical insights into quickly validating and scaling an entrepreneurial idea. The episode exemplifies how passion, fast execution, and optimizing both the user and service-provider sides can create a winning, viral tech product in traditional industries.