Why We Started Traqly
When we first started talking to chefs, Traqly wasn’t even an idea.
Originally, we were exploring something completely different; a way to help chefs host pop-ups and connect with available restaurant spaces. But after dozens of conversations, we noticed something unexpected. Every single chef we spoke with brought up the same pain points. Managing the business and the admin, invoices, proposals and everything was all over the place and a complete time suck.
It became clear that the real problem here was not opportunity - but instead, operations. While getting new clients is always top of mind for chefs, running their businesses efficiently had also become a major problem.
The Reality of Running a Chef Business
Being a personal chef should be about creating great experiences around food. Designing menus, cooking for clients, etc… doing the thing that drew you to food in the first place.
But today, the business side gets in the way. Every event means juggling proposals, menus, client notes, and payments across five different tools. There’s no single system that connects it all.
After hearing this in different ways from several different chefs, it finally clicked. What if we can solve this problem for chefs so they can spend less time behind a laptop and more time building awesome events?
The Gap No One Was Filling
Every creative industry has its platform. Photographers, designers, trainers, etc. But what about chefs? Sure, there are legacy platforms for the massive catering and event planning businesses. But those prices don’t work for small businesses.
No true operating system designed specifically for personal chefs and small catering teams exists. Nothing that brings everything together in one place - proposals, menus, clients, events, payments, and revenue tracking.
That’s where Traqly comes in.
Building With Chefs, Not Just For Them
From the start, we’ve been very intentional in our approach: and that approach has been talking to as many chefs as possible, as often as we can.
Every feature we’ve prioritized, every workflow we’ve mapped, has come directly from conversations with chefs in the industry.
We have also built an advisory board of chefs, restaurant owners and industry experts to ensure we do not lose sight of our mission.
The feedback we’ve gotten and continue to get from chefs has shaped everything.
What’s Next
Right now, we’re in the final stages of building our beta. In the coming weeks, we’ll begin rolling it out to our first group of customers. These customers will be able to help us continue to shape the product.
If you’re a personal chef, caterer, or small team that wants to spend less time managing chaos and more time building incredible events, we’d love to have you in our early access program.
Sign up for our waitlist now to get in our free beta.