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GingerControlAbout us

Backed by Backed VC

Trade nerds married tech nerds.

GingerOS, our trade compliance platform, is their kid: rules from one side, code from the other.

  • Founded 2025 in Austin, Texas
  • Member of ICPA, HCBFFA, AAEI
  • Two systems in production

Tech nerds

Trade nerds

Click a photo to open the card

Chart: Galveston Entrance, Texas, U.S. Coast Survey, 1853. Pressed specimen: Smithsonian (CC0).

Family tree collage over an 1853 chart of Galveston harbor: polaroids show each person’s name, role, past companies and LinkedIn link, tech nerds on the left, trade nerds on the right and co-founders Chen Cui and Sean Yu in the center, every stem meeting at a GingerOS polaroid.

Why we started.

A family import business, a hold at the port, and about 200 phone calls.

Chen and Sean as schoolboys in West Auckland, New Zealand

A slideshow on a projection screen that advances as you scroll, from Chen and Sean as schoolboys in West Auckland to a container stamped Hold. About 200 dots, one per conversation, gather into three findings, and the last slide shows Chen and Sean working side by side.

West Auckland

Chen and Sean met at twelve in West Auckland, New Zealand. They’ve been friends ever since.

Read Chen’s full story

Where we’re going.

The mission: let your experts do expert work. Here’s where GingerOS is headed.

Today

Every AI tool sees only its own job. For example, Classification sees the part, nothing else.

Illustration of where we’re headed. Not built yet.

Illustration with sample data of where GingerOS is headed, not built yet. Six app icons merge into one GingerOS window, and a small Compliance Radar window beside it keeps scanning. Each time Radar spots something, it shows a notification with a suggested action, and one Ginger cat carries it out: it recalculates duty on 14 parts after a new duty rate, asks the supplier and the R&D team for two missing facts after a BOM change, checks USMCA origin and drafts a claim for the customs broker, estimates a duty drawback refund, drafts a reply to a CBP request for information (CF-28) from the classification record, and holds an order after an Entity List update. Every job ends as Ready for review, waiting for a person to approve it.

Thank you, Ginger!

GingerControl is named after Ginger. Our logo is his outline.

Ginger resting his chin on someone’s arm, looking at the camera
Ginger stretching in a garden bed, squinting at the camera
Remembering Ginger

Ginger passed away in September 2026. We drew his outline as our logo and turned the ginger of his coat into our orange, so he stays on every page we make.

Ginger, an orange and white cat in a blue collar, walking with his tail up and looking back at the camera

In the news.

Podcasts, partners and announcements. Press a key to tune in.

radio
Program
On airPodcast
Simply Trade Podcast

Chen and Sean on going from geopolitics nerds to AI that briefs companies on tariff changes.

Listen on YouTube

A radio whose tuning dial is a calendar running from Jan to Sep, then Now, with four preset keys (Simply Trade, Vinh Ho, Newsroom, ITI) and a program list tucked underneath. Pressing a key or a program row moves the needle to that item’s date and shows its source, date, headline and link in the On air window.

Featured in.

What newspapers, our university, our education partner, a trade podcast and our investors wrote about us.

A letter from Chen.

Our co-founder and CEO, on who we build for and what we promise them.

Chen Cui, co-founder and CEO of GingerControl
Chen Cui
Austin, Texas

To everyone who moves the world’s goods,

The people we build for are trying to do the right thing in a system that keeps getting harder: the compliance team covering more parts every quarter with the same few people, the manager whose best classifier retires next year.

So here is our promise. GingerOS asks before it answers. It shows its reasoning on every decision, so you can defend it. It runs on your process, not ours. And your licensed broker makes the final call.

We know what one held shipment can cost a family business. Hold us to it.

Chen CuiCo-founder and CEO, GingerControl

Where to find us.

Headquarters in Austin, Texas. In London, you’ll find us at Backed VC.

AustinPrincipal office
GingerControlUnit 12-324, 701 Tillery StreetAustin, TX 78702United States
Local time
Londonc/o Backed VC
GingerControlFloor 1, 6 Cavendish SquareLondon W1G 0PDUnited Kingdom
Local time

A dotted map of the northern hemisphere with two pins, Austin and London, joined by an arched line. Each pin is linked to a small window with that office’s address and its current local time.

Questions about us

Who founded GingerControl?

Chen Cui, co-founder and CEO, and Sean Yu, co-founder. They met at twelve in West Auckland, New Zealand, and founded GingerControl in Austin, Texas, in 2025.

Why is it called GingerControl?

It’s named after Ginger, an orange cat. Our logo is his outline, and our brand orange is his coat, turned up.

Who backs GingerControl?

Backed VC led our $2.1M pre-seed round, announced in May 2026.

What’s on the GingerOS roadmap?

A system that watches your trade compliance and does the legwork, with a person approving every result. Today GingerOS brings together HTS classification, export control classification, the tariff calculator, Product Sandbox, Compliance Radar and the daily tariff briefing. Next, when Radar spots a new duty rate, a BOM change, a CBP request or an Entity List update, Ginger will recalculate duty, reclassify parts and ask your supplier or R&D for missing facts, check FTA eligibility, estimate duty drawback and draft replies. These are on our roadmap, not built yet.

Where are your offices?

Our principal office is Unit 12-324, 701 Tillery Street, Austin, TX 78702. In the UK, we’re at Backed VC, Floor 1, 6 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0PD.

Are you a customs broker?

No. GingerControl builds the system; a licensed customs broker files the entry. Results are for your team and your broker to review, never a substitute for either.

What company is behind GingerControl?

Flowyth Co., a Delaware corporation (file number 10252608) doing business as GingerControl. Its principal office is in Austin, Texas, and its registered agent is Firstbase Agent LLC in Wilmington, Delaware. Chen Cui is the co-founder and CEO.

Who reviews the trade content you publish?

Compliance content is reviewed by Michael Weick, LCB, CCS, a retired customs compliance manager, and export-control content by an export compliance practitioner.

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