TL;DR — I’m traveling North America to meet, mix and live stream with DJ’s, producers and personalities that make Chew the community. Want me to come to your city? Email me now!
A couple of weeks ago Paul Smith announced he would be stepped down as CEO of Ignite, the accelerator program that helped Chew become what it is today.
Undeniably the the Ignite program and Paul’s support is why the platform exists in it’s current form, but well before the Ignite program even existed Paul was inspiring me to do new things. If you didn’t know, he traveled from Newcastle in England to the other side of the planet as the Twitchhiker back in 2009. I first learned about the project through Twitter and the TWIT podcast net@night with Leo Laporte and Amber Mcarthur (Well worth a listen fellow Igniters).
Startup culture drove both Twitter and the output of the podcasts I listened to at the time. Being from Norfolk and not having much else to do I happily lapped up stories of startup life. Hearing the tale of a Northerner who’d made it across to meet my idols using just the power of Twitter cemented the power and possibility the internet could provide and starting my long road to starting Chew in 2014. Checkout one of my first projects as a teenager:
Needless to say it’s not around anymore.
What excites me is that Chew’s community is the same Twitter’s community back in 2009
Over the first 12 months the Chew community has grown at and insane pace and at the same time managed to build and sustain real connection and collaboration between one another. It blows me away every day that a product created by a team of four in an small office in London can connect users from 130 countries around the world. It’s clear though that our DJ’s, producers and presenters from America are the longest broadcasters, the most repeat sharers and the most active chatters.
With the Seedrs campaign (Which is still running by the way!) I love the fact that hundreds of our users and fans have invested significant money in supporting Chew. Despite the fact Seedrs is limited to the Europe we had more requests to invest from our American users than any other country outside Europe.
All these reasons and more is why Chew needs to cross the Atlantic.
That’s why this Thursday (The 11th of February 2016) I board a flight to Los Angeles. What happens after that is up the Chew community. From West to East and back, nothing is booked, you decide where I go next and where I end up.
On top of meet ups, streaming and giving out some Chew goodies there’s also the opportunity to be filmed as part of an accompanying series of short films we’re producing with help of a New York based channel.
Help me explore your city by emailing me now!
I’m looking forward to seeing you all in the U-S-of-A.
I’m Ben Bowler the Co-founder of Chew, subscribe to my email updates above for more.
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