Crafting the soul of Chewse

When we’re not on sales calls or hacking away at our computers, you’ll often find us at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Vardo. It is utterly local and about as rustic as LA dining gets. From the fish-shaped water pitchers to the cacao-infused Casanova drink and the guitar-playing Gypsy waitress, this place exudes personality and soul.

We started Chewse with a simple idea: to streamline catering orders. But spending time at Vardo reminds us that a company is made of so much more than just what comes out of the kitchen. Our company is defined by its soul.

Before you let this Venice hippie stuff scare you away, let’s talk about some serious tech companies. Zappos, for one, has done an incredible job of transforming dusty corporate mission statements into living, breathing documents. We love the story of CEO Tony Hsieh sending an email to his entire company for consensus on what their company values should be. The process took a whole year (a lifetime in startup years) but was well worth it.

So let’s get introspective about our own passions at Chewse. We both share a love of good food, a belief in togetherness, and a healthy respect for failure. We have distilled our passions into the values we at Chewse will live by:

• Food: Great food is one of the simplest joys. Creating and sharing food bridges cultures and brings all people together.
• Family: We care about each other, we work for each other, and we trust one another. Both inside and outside of the office, we are family.
• Failure: We embrace failure as a companion of success. Wherever failure is punished, innovative ideas rarely take root. We will build a culture where fear of failure is never a driving factor and smart risks are celebrated.

When small bugs turn into 2 a.m. coding sessions, when office space gets tight, when term sheets just don’t add up, the  soul of Chewse anchors us and reminds us why we did this in the first place.

We propose a toast to Chewse. Catering partners who inspire us, family and friends who support us, future employees who will grow with us:  this one’s for you.

At the end of the day, we aim to build a culture that appreciates when the founders set up business meetings over food at local joints like Vardo. And perhaps we’ll add our own quirky Chewse office space and our own signature hot drinks — just don’t expect too much guitar-playing from us on deploy days.

Cheers,

Jeff & Tracy