Munich Startup: What problem do you solve?
Dominic Preiß, CEO and Co-Founder: Finding a restaurant that really suits you, a good bar or a new café is often unnecessarily complicated today. We don’t just see this ourselves – we’ve also heard it reflected back from many friends. Especially in new cities, many people struggle to find really good and relevant restaurants, bars or cafés.
In the end, it usually goes something like this: You check Instagram, search further on Google Maps and also ask friends for recommendations. At the same time, trust in anonymous reviews on platforms like Google Maps has declined for many people.
This is where Localee comes in. We’re building a social discovery app that brings together real recommendations, posts, social signals and local guidance in one place. A particularly important point for us is that you can also see what your own social circle has actually recommended, visited or rated. Because when it comes to decisions like restaurants, bars or cafés, recommendations from friends and acquaintances are often the most valuable.
Munich Startup: What can only you do right now?
Dominic Preiß: We combine social discovery with genuine local context. For us, it’s not just about finding a place on a map, but also understanding why it’s relevant, who has been there and whether it really fits your taste. Additionally, recommendations from your personal network play a much stronger role in your own perception than on traditional rating platforms.
That’s exactly what makes the difference for us: Places aren’t just shown, but become much more tangible through social context. With features like personalized search, recommendations based on your network and, in the future, smarter suggestions, we want to make this kind of discovery significantly better.
The idea behind founding Localee
Munich Startup: What triggered the founding?
Dominic Preiß: The trigger was a problem I knew very well myself and also experienced constantly from those around me. Again and again, there was this situation: You want to go out to eat with friends or acquaintances and agonize forever over which restaurant to choose. One person checks Instagram, another searches Google Maps, and someone else asks friends for recommendations – and yet the decision often remains unnecessarily difficult.
This behavior eventually wouldn’t leave me alone. I realized that while recommendations are everywhere, they rarely come together in a way that actually makes a decision easier. From this observation, the idea for Localee came to me.
Challenges in building and looking ahead
Munich Startup: Was there a moment when you thought about giving up?
Dominic Preiß: Not about giving up, but definitely moments when we realized how hard product development really is. We often had a very clear picture of how Localee should look and function in the end – and yet in implementation, we kept discovering how many loops, technical hurdles and open decisions lay in between.
There were phases where further development took much longer than we expected, and we felt we were making slower rather than faster progress. Especially in such moments, I realized how quickly your own perfectionism can hold you back. At the same time, it was always clear to us: The problem is real and that’s exactly why it’s worth continuing.
Munich Startup: How would you know in a year that you’re on the right track?
Dominic Preiß: If Localee has really become part of everyday life in Munich and in other cities too. So if people don’t just find the app interesting, but use it naturally to discover new places, share recommendations and orient themselves in their environment. If that creates real usage, real retention and real relevance, then we know we’re on the right track.
Localee was founded in 2025 by Michael Gratz, Faisal Mohammadi and Dominik Preiß. Together they built TriMndTec, the company behind Localee. The three already knew each other from a professional context. Eventually, many brainstorming sessions led to the concrete decision to start their own business together.
Munich Startup: Would you found again in Munich and why?
Dominic Preiß: Yes, definitely. Munich is a strong starting point for us because the city has a vibrant gastro, café and bar scene and at the same time offers enough dynamism for new digital products. Plus, we’re from Munich ourselves and know user behavior here very well. For Localee, it was exactly the right environment to launch.
Munich Startup: Perfection or speed?
Dominic Preiß: Today, clearly: speed. At the beginning I was much more of a perfectionist and wanted to optimize the product until it really felt finished. But that’s exactly what held us back. We learned firsthand how easy it is to spend too long refining internally instead of learning from real users.
That’s why speed is more important to me today. Especially with a product like ours, perfection doesn’t help much if you build in isolation for too long. You have to get feedback early and understand what’s really relevant for users.
