Building Revenue Engines in the Restaurant Technology Space With Tara Clever

About Guest

Tara Clever is the Chief Revenue Officer at MarginEdge, a restaurant management and bill payment platform that leverages automation and AI to streamline restaurant operations. Under her leadership, MarginEdge has marked its 10-year anniversary by reaching major milestones, including onboarding its 10,000th restaurant customer and expanding its AI-powered product offerings. Tara brings a unique blend of sales, operations, and marketing experience, with a background in DTC and B2B growth, and focuses on customer-centric alignment and operational clarity to drive scalable go-to-market outcomes.

In this episode…

Restaurant tech is evolving fast, but building a real revenue engine in this space takes more than just clever software. It requires understanding the operators behind the businesses, the shifting market, and where growth can either leak or accelerate. So what actually separates companies that scale from those that stall?

For Tara Clever, the key lies in treating marketing and sales as one unified system, not two separate worlds. Drawing from her DTC growth instincts, she explains that revenue only works when every part of the funnel stays aligned and accountable. Her perspective shows how obsessing over customer feedback, human connection, and pipeline fluency can turn restaurant technology into something that truly drives lasting business impact.

In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, host Alex Gluz is joined by Tara Clever, Chief Revenue Officer at MarginEdge, to discuss building revenue engines in the restaurant technology space. They explore aligning sales and marketing, applying DTC funnel discipline to B2B growth, and creating fast customer-driven feedback loops. Tara also shares why scalable human connection matters even more in an AI-powered world.

A glimpse of what you will learn

• [01:15] Tara Clever shares her journey to becoming CRO at MarginEdge
• [05:43] Why DTC instincts can supercharge B2B revenue teams
• [08:51] The secrets to aligning sales and marketing for growth
• [11:00] How rapid feedback loops boost B2B performance like DTC
• [16:19] How AI is accelerating product development cycles
• [23:32] Tips to translate marketing results into business-wide impact
• [27:06] Surprise-and-delight programs that foster real customer connection
• [35:25] Why AI-powered product speed will shape the next wave of growth
• [37:11] The mentors and leadership lessons that shaped Tara’s approach to revenue

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Alex Gluz on LinkedIn
• T.A. Monroe Digital Agency
• Tara Clever on LinkedIn
• Tara Clever: Email
• MarginEdge
• Bob McKay on LinkedIn

Quotable Moments

• “I often think about my direct-to-consumer experience has turned into a bit of a superpower.”
• “Sales and marketing alignment is something that I think has been a key ingredient to the pretty incredible growth.”
• “I am maybe the nosiest person on our team. I am super nosy.”
• “The ability to make a customer feel heard, seen, recognized, supported, acknowledged is an incredibly powerful tool.”
• “I really believe that there is going to be value for organizations around building infrastructure on human connection.”

Action Steps

1. Align sales and marketing around shared revenue goals: When both teams operate as one system, pipeline quality improves and growth becomes more predictable.
2. Stay obsessively close to the customer voice: Listening to calls and feedback creates faster learning loops and prevents teams from drifting away from real needs.
3. Define clear metrics and attribution across the funnel: Shared language around outcomes builds trust, accountability, and smarter investment decisions.
4. Build scalable infrastructure for human connection: Surprise-and-delight moments and personal recognition strengthen loyalty in ways automation cannot replace.
5. Adapt the go-to-market strategy as product velocity increases: Faster product development requires equally agile messaging and education so customers can adopt innovations quickly.

Sponsor for this episode

This episode is brought to you by T.A.Monroe Digital. At T.A.Monroe, we build world class revenue engines for B2B SaaS companies. What that means is we do everything behind the scenes to generate you tons of qualified leads, opportunities and customers.

1. We build highly effective marketing systems and scale their profitably through our demand generation strategies.
2. We think scientifically on how to scale your demand and revenue.
3. We bring decades of experience.

Email us at alex@tamonroe.com or visit www.tamonroe.com today to schedule a strategy session or learn more about our mission.

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