ACQ2 by Acquired

Chewse CEO Tracy Lawrence on growing both as a company and a founder

Oct 21, 2019

In this conversation with Tracy Lawrence, founder and CEO of Chewse, she shares her innovative approach to company culture, emphasizing love and connection. Tracy discusses how she fosters playfulness in the workplace to combat burnout. They dive into the importance of mental health and vulnerability in leadership. Tracy elaborates on building community through food and the challenges of creating a fair workplace culture. Her insights into embracing authenticity and supporting fellow founders reveal a refreshing perspective on entrepreneurship.

01:08:04

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Episode guests

Tracy Lawrence

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Episode notes

Intro

2min

Building Community Through Food

12min

Innovating Food Service: A Startup's Journey

6min

Evolving Food Service: Innovation and Connection

15min

The Evolution of Company Culture: Balancing Care and Excellence

2min

Embracing Authenticity in Company Culture

27min

Navigating Founder's Doubts and Embracing Supportive Communities

4min

"You can call it paranoia, or you can call it innovation. The language doesn’t matter if the feeling is the same. This is all an experiment I’m running eight years in: How do I update my mindset to want to approach things by activating the pleasure center more than the pain center? I’m more likely to move away from pain and towards pleasure. So why don’t I make innovation a game and bring play to, literally playfulness, into it? I see too many founders burn out because they have lost playfulness in their culture." – Tracy Lawrence, @chewishgirl

Tracy Lawrence, founder and CEO of Chewse (@chewse) takes us on the journey of how and why she founded Chewse. Tracy, Ben, and David discuss most of the traditional topics (early days, product-market fit, mission alignment), but spend most of the time talking about non-traditional topics like mental health, vulnerability, and love for company and self. If you’re a founder, this episode will perk both your IQ and your EQ. For everyone else, your faith in the future of tech might get restored. Enjoy!

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