Hey there, I'm Matt. I spent the last 10 years in engineering and leadership roles in corporate America, but recently took the dive into entrepreneurship to go full-time on totchop. The idea for totchop came to me over time. In 2020, I discovered a wooden ulu knife set in our China cabinet, which was gifted several years prior, and tried using it to cut my young daughter's food into bites. Eureka! I was baffled how this type of knife was not on every baby registry, and jokingly discussed with my wife that I should make a dishwasher-safe version.
In fact, I realized nobody sold a dishwasher-safe set so I kept this idea on the back burner. Fast forward to October 16, 2022. We were having a normal family dinner, and our second daughter Joanie (16mo) suddenly became unresponsive at the dinner table. We had no idea what was happening, but we assumed she was choking. Seconds went by with only blank stares back at us. I called 911 while my wife began thrusting her belly. We were in complete shock and a state of terror. Joanie finally vomited after what felt like minutes (probably 45-60 seconds of unresponsiveness). She began crying and "came back to it".
In the following days I decided to move the idea off the back burner, and add easy-to-use measuring aides to a dishwasher-safe ulu set. Thankfully, with my background in med device R&D and manufacturing, I had the skillset to develop a food-safe product from the ground up. I excitedly worked with a small team of talented friends to build totchop over 2023.
Today, totchop has evolved into a real-life product that the team believes will be a game-changer in meal prep. It's been a dream come true to ship actual product to the world.
Join the Journey
I invite you to be part of this journey to redefine kids' food prep. It doesn't have to be slow and worrisome any longer.