The Mind of TCHO

Laurel is our VP Ops. She’s responsible for, among other things, finishing our factory buildout, now scheduled for 1 October. This is her whiteboard on the factory floor.

“Yeah Hi, I’m calling from TCHO Ventures in San Francisco…. TCHO Ventures…. it’s a chocolate company, we have an account with you……how do you spell it? Uh, yea, it’s T-C-H-O….. no, T as in Tom, C as in, well, chocolate, H as in hat, O as in - ….right, TCHO….no it starts with a T, not a C….”

It feels phonetic enough to me, but then again, I work here. And I don’t spend much time on the phone, but I sit next to folks who do, so I get to hear them desperately trying to explain our name.

Jeremy, Zohara, Simone, and Matt have gotten “tee-cho” and “techo” from people who can’t swallow the T, “T-C-H-O” as if our name were an acronym, and the UPS guy who visits us every day—even after numerous attempts to correct him—still mis-pronounces it as “tekko.”

This difficulty of pronouncing TCHO is somewhat ironic considering that the word was initially used as a phonetic way to communicate ‘chocolate’ to visiting German technicians, and written on a sign on our door. The word on the sign on our door ultimately became our name.

More on that story forthcoming…

Wow! 

Robert, from our mold making partners Micelli Chocolate Mold Company, just sent me these sweet pictures of the die for making our chocolate molds they just milled.  So sexy! 

Here is the positive for the 5.7 gram:

And the 9 gram positives are absolutely positively beautiful. 

I revel in imagining how these positives will become the masters for which all the other respective molds will be made.  And those molds will become the little crucibles that will shape the chocolate that will make so many people happy.

Back when we were starting Wired in 1991, the morphing section (by Carl Rosendahl and his Pacific Data Images) of this video directed by John Landis was state of the art:

Here’s where we are today:

P.S. Although morphing hasn’t lost its power:

TCHO Nutty debuted at SES (Search Engine Strategy) with Google Analytics in San Jose.

What great company for our little chocolate company to keep.  We were a featured case study for Google Analytics and we look forward to continuing to use their great tools as we further develop our website.

Rob made a fabulous TCHO booth dude.

And of course we showered the floor with TCHObundance.

Thanks Google!  We look forward to more fun in the future.

Roxie is an original. If you’ve ever got a chance to meet her, you know what I mean when I say she is truly special. 

As my loyal and obedient doggie sidekick, Roxie was by my side practically every step along the way in forming the company.

She was right there, always, from the mundane everyday tasks to the most exciting times.

From chasing her tail, to just coming up to give you some love, she often brightens up our days.

Here are some a few selected images of Roxie in her official role as the Senior Company Mascot.

Here’s Roxie helping inspect parts for the molding line when it first came in…

She also *loves* riding around with me on the forklift. 

She also loves to dive into the projections…

Roxie was there helping Matt work the forklift the historic day we hung the factory disco ball.

...more Roxie blogging to come.

Well, we went and bought a Smart car, a Passion cabriolet.  It has been quite the fun purchase.  We saw plenty of Smart cars in Europe, and when I learned that they were going to be sold in the States as of January 2008, I was intrigued.  Then I read a review of them sometime around that month and the reviewer was impressed.

It was after I saw this video, however, that I was sold on it.

It is a blast to drive, though it really is impossible not to laugh when seeing someone pull up in it.  Plus, it comes in a convertible!  Win-Win!  :)

Most people who have never seen one think either a) that it’s electric, or b) that it gets insanely good gas milage.  Neither of these are true, though we haven’t actually filled the tank yet and so have no real measurements.  Anyway, it’s a perfect city car and that’s exactly what we need.  Yay Smart!

I just spent a great two months at TCHO. I came home from a less-than-perfect semester abroad in mid-June, slightly disenchanted. Disenchanted is a perfect word to describe what I was, because working at TCHO showed me that enchantment can exist even in the world of business.

I’m pretty sure that it comes across to our customers by the way we speak about TCHO at events, on the website, and on the phone to customers, but this place is a downright awesome place to work. I can’t wait for TCHO tasters (you) to come to the factory and take a tour, and get a little taste of what it’s like to work here.

Maybe some details would go well with this gushing. How’s this: there’s not one person I’ve met at this company that isn’t excited by working here. Honestly, the passion that every employee has for TCHO chocolate and what it stands for (to put it simply: making great chocolate, and making the world a better place) is completely visible and completely contagious.

Of course, every job has its boring moments (long afternoons of stuffing chocolate into envelopes or building gift boxes come to mind), but even these were shared with other employees (read: interns), and therefore infinitely more enjoyable.

In a purely TCHO tech-obsessed twist, I’m making this my goodbye letter to my wonderful colleagues at TCHO.  I’m making it public to show everyone else who reads this blog that not only does TCHO make phenomenal chocolate, but behind that chocolate is an enthused, dedicated team of real people at Pier 17.

Of course, my “goodbye” is qualified by air quotes (until we get into video-blogging, you’ll have to make do with text quotes). I plan on bringing TCHO back to school, nudging my peers into tasting the difference between our chocolates, and holding pairing parties, as well as helping to tell the stories (via e-mail) that make TCHO the company that it is. And I’m sure I’ll be back over Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.

So until then, TCHOsen ones, it’s back to school (or whatever).