Behind the product

Christian Ritter built Sidekick to give Square sellers true real time awareness.

After a decade as both a Square partner and a Square powered cafe owner, Christian experienced the same problem over and over. The dashboard buried simple, critical insights. Sidekick fixes that with hyper granular alerts and AI summaries operators can trust.

Founder note

Christian has been a Square user for more than ten years. He first supported enterprise merchants as a telecom sales engineer where Square was one of his accounts. Later he opened a cafe in San Francisco, running point of sale, payroll, and team management entirely on Square.

On April first he started building Sidekick from scratch, grinding through nights and weekends. The initial concept was a conversational AI that could answer questions like how many lattes sold with oat milk last month. During testing the real breakthrough surfaced: laser focused push alerts that arrive the moment something meaningful happens.

Today Sidekick routes sales, refunds, discounts, online orders, and team milestones across multi location accounts. That means owners stay connected without living inside dashboards.

Christian Ritter, Founder

What makes Sidekick different

  • Hyper granular alerts do not exist anywhere else in the Square ecosystem.
  • Sidekick is built and battle tested by an operator who still runs on Square every day.
  • Every cohort gets white glove onboarding, tuned alert rules, and direct feedback loops with Christian.
Guiding principles

The values that keep Sidekick focused on real operator impact

Operators first
Every product decision runs through the lens of the person on the floor managing guests, staff, and inventory in real time.
Signal over noise
If an alert or insight does not lead to action, it does not ship. Sidekick filters relentlessly so leaders stay in flow.
Own the outcome
Christian stays close to every cohort, handling onboarding, tuning alert rules, and gathering feedback until results are obvious.
Build stack

Tools and workflows that power Sidekick

Xcode, Swift, and SwiftUI for the iOS interface
Node.js and PostgreSQL on Fly.io for real time routing
GitHub and disciplined late night commits
AI copilots including Grok, Codex CLI, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and ChatGPT o3 for reviews, polish, and mockups
AppLaunchpad for crisp App Store ready visuals
Journey

From Square admirer to Sidekick founder

2013
Square power user
Worked with global merchants as a telecom sales engineer and saw the impact of Square firsthand.
2017
Cafe owner
Opened a cafe in San Francisco and ran point of sale, payroll, and team management entirely on Square hardware.
2024
Sidekick idea
Frustrated by the time it took to surface real time insights inside the Square dashboard, Christian started building Sidekick on April first.
2025
Alpha in the wild
Sidekick entered alpha with Square sellers testing hyper granular alerts across multiple locations.
Now

Sidekick is in alpha with Square sellers giving real world feedback

Christian continues to build in public, sharing progress on Reddit, X, and inside the founding cohort. Every alert rule and insight is sharpened alongside operators who want to stay obsessed with their business.