Influx

I was lucky enough to get to hear Timothy Childs, the co-founder of chocolate company TCHO, speak at an event last night.

While TCHO isn’t in any position to threaten the likes of Mars, Cadbury and Hershey, it’s using it’s tiny scale to hack the industry.

Its approach to everything has been to smash the rule book and think again.

Most of their machinery is hacked together, but it’s also rich in technology, for instance, they’ve developed a single iPhone application to remotely control the factory. They also have ambitious plans for virtual and augmented reality to help train employees and monitor the performance of equipment. 

They are also putting their tech skills to work out with their cocoa farmers out in the developing world. Perhaps the most significant advance they’ve made is to remove the subjectivity from the process, by encouraging farmers to fill in complex spreadsheets, where they have to rate the flavors and attributes of their beans.

TCHO simply captures this information, which, over-time will negate the need for having a person in the field or having to travel to farms to taste beans. In addition, they’ve also taken sensors to cocoa farms that monitor weather conditions, allowing TCHO in San Francisco to have a better handle on how the beans are fermenting.

Flexibility is also a key asset for TCHO, because its equipment is hacked together, they can easily transport it out to the farms and give farmers the chance to taste chocolate from their own beans. Apparently, over 90% of cocoa farmers have never tasted chocolate made from their own beans.

TCHO is also into co-opetition, giving other local boutique chocolate makers access to its machinery, so they can make special runs etc.

Overall, a great example of how a small company can truly sieze the opportunity to be disruptive maverick.

Posted by Ed Cotton