“You have to pay a lot of attention to yourself.” That’s what he learned in five years as CEO, says Daniel Khachab when we met him for lunch. Founder scene
Ah, apparently also someone who would rather be early than late. A good ten minutes before our appointment, Daniel Khachab is already standing in front of the Il Nuovo Primo restaurant on the Fontanepromenade in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It’s snowing. Khachab ducks under the canopy and makes a phone call. That’s probably how it is as the CEO of a unicorn. You have to use every minute.
The unicorn, whose inventor and boss is Daniel Khachab, is called Choco. Most recently, in February 2023, the Berlin startup was valued at 1.2 billion euros. Investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, G Squared, Coatue Management, Insight Partners and Left Lane Capital have invested a total of more than 308 million euros in the startup since it was founded in 2018. Choco is particularly active in the United States, but more than 15,000 restaurateurs also use the app in Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Belgium, according to the company.
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Renato is certainly one of them. Renato, that’s the owner of Il Nuovo Primo, explains Daniel Khachab after taking a seat in a corner of the Italian restaurant. He’s already talked to him a lot about his business and his business, of course. Il Nuovo Primo has long been one of his favorite restaurants, also for meeting with investors and celebrating deal closings, he says. The former Choco office was nearby.
This isn’t about convenience
At first glance, what Choco does is a product that was invented for Renato: a messenger app for innkeepers. This allows them to plan, place and track their grocery orders, and invoices are also received directly there. This makes the lives of chefs, restaurant owners and F&B managers much easier. Previously, explains Khachab, Renato had to call or fax his orders every evening, one to the greengrocer, one to the person who delivered the meat, one to the wine merchant, and so on. Now he could do it all simply via an app. So comfortable! But that’s not really what Daniel Khachab is interested in.
He and his co-founder don’t want to provide more convenience, they have much bigger things in mind. Choco is intended to help solve one of the world‘s biggest problems. The startup wants to reduce food waste and ultimately combat climate change.