Upward,

Joe Beninato
Founder/CEO
Tello, Inc.

When we launched the original Tello apps last year, we gave people everywhere a way to provide feedback to businesses small and large. Tello has spread and is now in use in all 50 states and even starting to appear internationally in Europe, Asia and South America.

We heard from businesses that they’d like a way to engage with their customers, and so we set out to build a set of tools designed specifically for businesses. The result is Tello for Business.

Now businesses everywhere can get instant notifications when people provide feedback using Tello, and respond to this feedback immediately to acknowledge praise or resolve issues. In addition, Tello for Business customers can see live ratings dashboards and view detailed employee analytics.

We want small businesses to be able to use the same Tello for Business software that a big Fortune 500 company can use. So we have a free version that lets businesses with up to 3 locations receive feedback from their customers. For those businesses with more than 3 locations or wanting to respond back to their customers via Tello, our Premium versions costs $99 per location per month.

Businesses can go to http://tello.com to claim their business and get started.

We are proud to announce our $2.7 million Series A financing led by True Ventures and Bullpen Capital. We are so fortunate to be able to work with such a great group of investors. They not only provide us with capital, but also with the insight and support necessary to continue on our startup journey. We couldn’t have gotten to where we are now without them.

As always, we’ve love to hear from you any time. Please email us at hello [at] tello [dot] com. And spread the word about Tello and Tello for Business.

We’re very happy to announce a brand-new, fully-social version of the Tello service which now lets you share Tello ratings with your friends on Facebook and Twitter and directly engage with businesses to resolve issues. Get it at http://tello.com.

People expect great customer service and are eager to offer insights to help businesses improve. Now everyone can make a difference by thanking employees for great service, and by providing constructive feedback on less-than-great service.

Tello is more convenient than ever — now the app includes a “Request Reply” feature that lets you tell a business you have rated an employee and would like them to contact you to resolve any issues.

We think Tello can be a new kind of rating system that offers businesses structured, constructive criticism in real-time. During our beta period, we were pleased to find that more than 85 percent of Tello ratings were positive.

So download Tello for the iPhone/iPad! Go to http://tello.com or http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tello/id393722575.

For Android and other mobile users, our mobile web app is at http://m.tello.com

We’d love to hear from you – email us at hello [at] tello [dot] com.

The idea for Tello started with one of those bumper stickers we’ve all seen on the backs of trucks. They usually say “How Am I Driving? Call 1-800-XYZ-ABCD.”  I thought to myself “wouldn’t it be cool if every interaction you had with a customer service representative from ANY company had one of these bumper stickers?” Combine that thought with the proliferation of smartphones like the iPhone and Android, location-based apps, and crowdsourcing, and you now have a way to rate any interaction you have with any person at any company. It seemed that if we could “shine a light” on these every day interactions, we could really help improve the customer service that people receive wherever they go. That felt like a pretty big idea, and we’re more convinced than ever that we’ve found a great problem to solve.

Whether it’s a flight attendant, a shoe salesperson, a car dealer, a cellular phone provider, a DMV employee or a waiter–you now have a way to thank them for great customer service, or give them constructive feedback on what they could’ve done to serve you better–all in 30 seconds or less on your smartphone. I’ve often wanted to thank someone for doing a great job for me by letting their boss know, but finding their boss is really hard. I’ve also often wanted to give some feedback about how someone could have done a better job, but the fear of a confrontation always took over. Tello solves both of these problems, and also let’s me lookup any service provider in advance–say a car dealer or realtor–before I go and shop. And if you are a business, you now have a way to find out which employees are doing a great job with customers, and which employees need further training or help.

The Tello team (you know who you are) have done a great job pulling everything together for launch. Thank you for all of your hard work! I’d also like to thank the 10 all-star seed investors who have agreed to join us on this adventure. They have all given their time, connections, and advice, and we very grateful for their support. Our heartfelt thanks to Jon Callaghan of True Ventures, Ron Conway of SV Angel, Mark Goines, Dave McClure of 500 Startups, Eric Paley of Founder Collective, Shervin Pishevar of SGN, Naval Ravikant of Venture Hacks, Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital, Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures, and Russ Siegelman.

If you haven’t already, please download Tello from the Apple App Store (just search for “Tello”), or if you use an Android phone (or any other smartphone), go to m.tello.com to try out the HTML5 version.

We’d love to hear from you–tell us what you think about Tello by emailing us at hello [at] tello [dot] com any time.