Howard University Alumna Launches Charlotte-Based AI App Connecting Diners, Food Creators, And Restaurants
Taylor Davis, a Howard University alumna, has launched a startup to boost restaurant sales.
Davis is behind a Charlotte, NC-based AI-powered app for food and travel enthusiasts called Troodie. The app features a list of businesses and builds a community for users to share their restaurant experiences, exposing diners to new eats. They can also create boards to organize their favorite restaurants.
“I’m so excited to finally introduce Troodie to the world. We built Troodie for travelers and foodies (Troodies) who love to explore new places through food. Unlike solutions where reviews are generic or bookmarked restaurants get lost, Troodie makes discovery more personal, easy to filter, and collaborative,” Davis told Black Business.
What’s more, the app also positions itself as the “first AI-powered social commerce platform that connects influencer content directly to real-world diner behavior,” per Black Business. Troodie is designed to benefit creators and restaurant owners by tracking customer visits tied to influencer campaigns (sales-based attribution) and providing restaurants with valuable marketing insights through first-party diner data. Its creator marketplace matches restaurants with influencers based on performance metrics and audience relevance, Black Business reports.
“For restaurants, it means being discovered by the right diners at the right moment, turning authentic word-of-mouth into measurable traffic and sales. One of my favorite features is how users can join Communities and share and curate recommendations together. It truly brings the joy of connection through food and travel into one place,” Davis expressed to Black Business.
Davis’s emphasized in her interview with Black Business that the decision to base the app in Charlotte is because of the city’s dining scene, tech ecosystem and community that supports innovation and Black founders.
The Troodie app has already onboarded more than 70 restaurants and 30 creators, per Black Business.
Davis was awarded $4,000 from the Baddies in Tech AI Pitch Competition held at BaddieCon in New York between Aug. 21-23. She confirmed in a LinkedIn post that the funds will support the company’s launch and contribute to its pre-seed goal of raising $500K.
