How Do Techies Start A Chocolate Company?

from the mouth...-watering... dept

There have been a ton of stories over the past few years about former dot commers starting up decidedly non-techie companies after the bubble burst. However, here's a great story of a former NASA camera designer who left that world to start making delicious chocolates that are apparently getting quite a bit of attention. What's amusing is how the former techies are using bits and pieces of their previous careers to help them with this new business. While their original recipe was created by accident (and, unfortunately, even surprised the guy making it - he had to keep experimenting for two more months to figure out what he had done), they are sneaking in some high-tech smarts into the process. The special fancy-looking box they use to sell the chocolates is very cheap and was designed using some CAD design software. They're also building a special machine to help them make their chocolate. The article also makes one other point that I've been telling people for the past three years. Now is a great time to start a business. While investment capital may be expensive - everything else is cheap. Rent is cheap, equipment is cheap and people are cheap. In fact, the guy admits that their website was built in exchange for chocolate, and they're using a candy factory during its off-hours to produce the chocolates (the article doesn't say which one, but it certainly sounds similar to the famous Scharffen-Berger chocolate factory). Overall, I think it's great to hear former techies starting non-techie businesses. Often, like in this case, they're using what they learned in the tech world to make their non-techie business much more efficient as well. Either way, I think I'm about to go order some chocolate.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Marc H. Nathan, 3 Sep 2003 @ 10:36am

    Tech Chocolate

    These guys aren't the only ones to do this exact same thing - I'm in the final stages of contract negotiations to help out a group of wireless technology guys transistion from high tech to low-sugar. They're called House of Brussels Chocolate and one of the "tech carryover" type things that they have done is license video game characters for their chocolates, like Sonic the Hedgehog. Check them out at http://www.hobc.ca

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    aNonMooseCowherd, 3 Sep 2003 @ 11:08am

    chocolate computer

    I want a chocolate computer.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Pat, 21 Dec 2005 @ 1:50pm

    German Chocolate Cake flavour European Drinking Ch

    We bought your wonderful Chocolate in Abbotsford, B.C. but it says it is also sold in California. The chocolate we bought was in a gift tin and we would like to know where we can buy this particular flavor and without the fancy tin if at all possible. Thanks for any help you can give.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.