Tuee is short for “The Universal Eating Experience,” and the four-person team is turning funding from The Startup Factory as well as angel investors into a fast-growing business.

Their aim is to help restaurants’ customer data into actionable intelligence.

So far, so good, says founder Vikram Rao.

The four-person company, which is based in Raleigh, exited from The Startup Factory accelerator last fall and has drawn investment from angels such as well-known Triangle software exec and investor Dave Gardner.

Just this week, email technology firm MailChimp said it would integrate Tuee software into its offerings – and it’s funding that work but is not investing in the company, Rao notes. Still, the deal is a big boost to Tuee’s credibility.

But before getting into the ingredients of what could be a Triangle-born success story, let’s talk about the name.

  • What’s it mean? Is it an ancient recipe/dish? Is it restauranter insider lingo?

Rao laughs.

“That’s a great question. Everyone asks us what it means,” he says. Rao then talks about how restaurants want customers to have an “experience,” not just a meal. They deciced the goal of a “universal eating experience” made an acronym they could brand.

And that seems to be paying off. In restaurants where their tablets are used to gather customer data, they are called “Tuees.”

On to the backstory, ingredients, plans and dreams of the Tuee team:

  • How many employees you have now? How many when started at TSF?

We’ve had 4 employees since we joined TSF.

  • Are you hiring or planning to hire? If so how many and in what areas?

We will soon be hiring to bring on additional Android development, design, data science, and sales professionals.

  • What’s your company slogan/motto?

We are redefining the way restaurants relate to their guests.

  • What’s the mission statement?

Our founding team has a passion for restaurants. In fact, the idea for Tuee came out of co-founder Kunal Arora’s desire to collect more guest data to help improve his family’s restaurant in Washington DC. With that said, our singular mission is to help restaurants succeed.

  • What’s the secret sauce?

Tuee’s secret sauce lies in the way we’ve built our technology to fit the needs of our target market. All of our features, designs, and layouts have come directly from input from influential restaurateurs. It also doesn’t hurt to have a restaurateur as a founding member of our team 🙂

  • Why target this market?

The restaurant industry is craving data. The average restaurant serves over 70,000 guests in a year, but only collects email addresses and feedback from a handful of guests. Imagine how difficult it would be to run a business with little to no data about your customers – this is the challenge that restaurants face every day. Tuee solves that problem.

  • How does the MailChimp deal help your company?

The MailChimp integration will enable Tuee customers to seamlessly send targeted and relevant messages to all of their guests through our online dashboard. By combining Tuee’s guest preferences and feedback capabilities with MailChimp’s superior email design engine, Tuee customers will now have guest relationship management capabilities like never before.

  • How many users – and how many paying customers?

We currently have 50 paying customers. Tuee customers are mainly concentrated in Raleigh and Chicago, but we also have customers in California, Ohio, Washington DC, and Atlanta. To date, we have collected over 45,000 guest responses and have sent over 40,000 targeted emails through our system.

  • How much funding have you raised at this point and from whom?

We have thus far raised an undisclosed amount of seed capital from TSF and David Gardner, a local angel investor.

  • Are you seeking additional funding at this time? If so how much and why?

We just announced this week that we are raising a series A round to help us onboard additional technical and sales resources. We have thus far built our business with a lean 4-person team and are raising this round to bring on the firepower required to expand Tuee nationally.

  • Has TSF provided additional financing since you graduated?

Since graduation, TSF has invested in Tuee two additional times.

  • Looking back at TSF, how did that help you as a company?

TSF has helped us grow from a garage start-up with 3 beta customers and a dream to where we are today. Aside from their financial support, they have connected us with many of our current advisors, have helped us get plugged into the Raleigh/ Durham tech scene, and have been instrumental in helping us properly scale our business.

  • How are they continuing to help you now? Mentoring? Support?

Dave Neal and Chris Heivly (TSF’s managing directors) are great mentors. They continue to provide candid, insightful feedback about key issues we face. In addition, given their backgrounds as successful entrepreneurs and executives, their networks are very powerful and continue to help us tremendously.

  • What’s the next big benchmark to hit that tells you your firm may be en route to success?

By the end of the year, our goal is to have 100 restaurants as customers, and to have collected over 100,000 responses.