xtraCHEF Founders Launch Tandem to Reinvent Restaurant Operations with AI; Michael Schulson Joins as Founding Partner

Andrew Schwartz and Bhavik Patel reunite after xtraCHEF to build an AI platform designed specifically for restaurant operators

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- xtraCHEF co-founders Andrew Schwartz and Bhavik Patel are teaming up again to launch Tandem, an AI company focused on transforming how restaurants operate. Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Michael Schulson has joined the company as a Founding Partner, bringing decades of restaurant operating experience directly into Tandem's product strategy and development.

Schwartz and Patel previously built restaurant technology company xtraCHEF, which was acquired by Toast. After spending years working alongside thousands of restaurant operators, the pair are returning to restaurant technology with a new thesis: AI creates an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how technology supports restaurant operators and their teams.

Tandem has also closed an initial seed financing to accelerate product development, expand its team and support its early restaurant deployments. The company is already working with operators across 100 restaurant locations through its pilot program, with a growing waitlist of additional restaurant groups interested in deploying the platform.

Restaurants today operate across an increasingly fragmented technology ecosystem spanning point-of-sale, labor, accounting, inventory, purchasing, reservations, delivery, marketing and more. While these systems have digitized much of the restaurant, operators and their teams still spend significant time manually moving information between platforms, analyzing data, identifying issues and completing repetitive administrative tasks.

Tandem is being built to change that.

Rather than adding another dashboard or standalone application for restaurant teams to manage, Tandem is building AI agents designed to work across the systems restaurants already use. These agents can help operators analyze information, identify what requires attention, automate repetitive workflows and take action across the business. Tandem will also act as a multiplayer workspace for the human employees to communicate with their agentic co workers.

"Bhavik and I spent years building technology alongside restaurant operators at xtraCHEF, and we came away with a very clear understanding of both the power and limitations of traditional restaurant software," said Andrew Schwartz, Co-Founder and CEO of Tandem. "Restaurants don't need another system to log into or another dashboard to manage. We believe AI gives us the opportunity to build technology that actually works alongside the operator — understanding what's happening across the business, handling repetitive work and helping teams take action."

As Co-Founder and CPO/CTO, Bhavik Patel leads Tandem's technology, AI and engineering strategy. Patel previously served as CTO and Co-Founder of xtraCHEF, where he helped build the technology platform that ultimately became part of Toast following the company's acquisition.

"The technology available to us today allows us to approach restaurant operations in a fundamentally different way," said Patel. "We're moving beyond software that simply stores data or presents information. AI gives us the ability to build systems that can understand context, reason across multiple sources of information and help execute work. Our focus at Tandem is turning those capabilities into reliable, practical products that solve real problems for restaurant operators."

Joining Schwartz and Patel as a Founding Partner is Michael Schulson, one of the country's most accomplished chefs and restaurateurs and founder of Schulson Collective. Schulson brings decades of hands-on experience building and operating successful restaurant concepts and will work closely with Tandem on product strategy, operator needs and the real-world application of AI inside restaurants.

Schulson's involvement reflects a core part of Tandem's approach: build with restaurant operators, not simply for them.

"There is an enormous opportunity for AI in restaurants, but it has to solve the problems operators actually deal with every day," said Schulson. "What excited me about Tandem is the opportunity to build this from the operator's perspective. We're identifying the work that takes time away from our teams and asking a simple question: why can't technology do more of this work for us?"

Together, Schwartz, Patel and Schulson bring a combination of restaurant technology, product development, AI expertise and hands-on restaurant operating experience to Tandem.

The company sees applications for AI across nearly every part of restaurant operations — from finance and accounting to labor, purchasing, inventory, marketing, guest engagement and day-to-day operational management. Tandem's strategy is to introduce agents around specific, high-value workflows and increasingly connect those capabilities across the restaurant organization.

Tandem is also developing integrations across the restaurant technology ecosystem, allowing its agents to work with the systems operators already rely on rather than requiring restaurants to replace their existing technology stack.

The company will use its seed capital to expand its engineering and product teams, deepen these integrations and accelerate deployments with restaurant groups.

"We think the restaurant technology industry is entering a major new chapter," Schwartz added. "The last generation of restaurant technology was about digitizing workflows and putting software into every part of the restaurant. We believe the next generation will be about intelligence and action — technology that understands the business and actively helps operators run it. That's the company we're building with Tandem."

About Tandem

Tandem is an AI platform built specifically for the restaurant industry. The company develops intelligent agents that work across restaurant systems to automate operational and administrative tasks, analyze information and help restaurant teams take action.

Tandem was co-founded by Andrew Schwartz and Bhavik Patel, the co-founders of restaurant technology company xtraCHEF, which was acquired by Toast. Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Michael Schulson serves as a Founding Partner, bringing deep restaurant operating expertise to Tandem's product development and strategy.

Tandem is operated by AI Labz Inc.

Media Contact
Andy Schwartz
[email protected]
www.usetandem.xyz

SOURCE Ai Labz Inc