Why DASA?
Food. Technology. Life.
My love for food started at a very young age. Most of the credit probably goes to my mother. I grew up on two acres of land. My father (the DA in DASA) bought a beautiful piece of land and put up a decent shack. Hurry up and get on with the foodstuff, right? When we moved in, I could play any type of sport I wanted anywhere on the land. Slowly but surely, these prime-time activity spots started to transform into gardens. I mean serious gardens. I started doing farm-to-fork, before it became a buzzword.
THE FIRST SHIFT
I vividly remember my first shift in the kitchen, it was wild. I convinced my parents to let me work a banquet shift at the local ski hill. It happened to be in the dish pit, and oh boy, was it ever an eye-opener! I had never heard that amount of swearing in my life, I had never seen so many people running around – controlled chaos at its finest!! The dish pit got me hooked……said no one ever.
THE JOURNEY
I’ll make the next part much quicker. After high school, I took a year off and worked in the kitchen at a Fairmont Hotel and the Mid Mountain Fine Dining Restaurant in the Rockies. It was all good until my parents thought it wasn’t all good and politely came out West and told me that my ski bum days were over and helped me enrol in a two-year Culinary Management Program at Algonquin College, in Ottawa. That led me to Hospitality Management and a Business Degree.
Off The Vine
Taught me how to love seasonal, fresh food. One of my fondest memories is getting off the bus after school while my friends had Ritz crackers and cheez whiz (gross). Meantime, my sister (the SA in DASA) and I were crushing fresh cucumbers and tomatoes off the vine - If you know, you know!
I always continued to work in kitchens during the summer or even while at Uni. I loved every second of my hospitality career but wanted to try the old 9-5.
Enter my technology career. I spent 10 years working in technology growing and scaling startups. What an amazing experience! It started in Calgary, then Toronto, back to Calgary, then New York, and back to Toronto. Between Calgary and New York, my sister tragically passed away, making me rethink my desire to talk to Fortune 500 companies about their backend digital infrastructure (boring).
My wife and I thought we were moving back to New York. She kindly told me that her job fell through but said she had a good opportunity in Hong Kong. Holy shit. Asia, I’d never been! I told her I needed to think about it. 45 minutes later and after a quick pint, I told her I was in but on one condition – I wanted to get back into Hospitality. She agreed. It’s highly debatable, if her response would be the same after enduring this startup roller coaster!
Our arrival in Hong Kong couldn’t have been timed better. The protests were happening and then everyone’s world changed when Covid flexed. No one was hiring. I also refused to get a job that required me to wear a suit to work, in 40-degree weather!
So, I did my MBA at the University of Hong Kong, and mid-way through, DASA was born. Like every other startup, it was born at the pub with one of my co-founders, Sam, over several beers on several different occasions. It started as a healthy juice delivery company and then progressed into the Direct-To-Consumer Platform that it is today.
Bit of a rant but all this to say, I’m back in Hospitality where I belong and along with my other Founders (Russ and Sam), we are building something great, something affordable, something that helps the hospitality industry.
Final Thoughts
Everyone takes or is presented with a different walk of life. Some people like to climb mountains, others like flat walks, and some even want to run. Whichever you choose, make sure you surround yourself with people that share the same values. I always talk to the team about HELPING. I am convinced that if we help the hospitality industry overcome its ongoing challenges, by using the right technology, we can better connect the dots between people, food/hospitality, and of course, our planet.
Build partnerships, build trust, and provide people with something that helps! Try to be real and dream big!!!
