Run by business owners and operators
SousChef is a small team of business owners, operators, and engineers who plug AI into parts of the business that used to fall through cracks. The team has a combined more than 20 years of experience owning businesses, understanding the firsthand challenges of having an SME.
Every owner-run business has someone whose name is on the door. They're the one who knows the regulars, makes the judgment calls, and holds the whole thing together, usually while also answering the phone, chasing down a vendor, and trying to keep the books straight.
Most of the AI tools built for small businesses hand that person a dashboard and disappear. You're left configuring workflows and reading documentation instead of running your business. We built SousChef to be the opposite of that: less software you have to learn, more work quietly getting done in the background, and a real team you can call when something needs a human decision.
We named the company after the person in a professional kitchen who runs the pass, the prep, the timing, so the head chef can stay focused on the food. That's the role we're built to play for you, whatever you run.
“We're not asking you to switch tools or replace your team. We're the team running the pass behind you.”
Three things we don't budge on
Augmentation, not replacement
AI runs the repetitive parts, checking inventory, drafting a follow-up, answering a routine question. The judgment calls, the craft, the relationships, that's still you. We're not trying to automate you out of your own business.
We plug into what you already use
Your booking system, your website, your point of sale, whatever you're already running. We connect to it and work quietly behind it instead of asking you to rip it out and learn something new.
A team, not just a login
Software can't call a vendor back or make a judgment call at 9pm on a Saturday. A real person on our side can. The relationship is the product, the AI is how we make it scale.
Five ways we help you build and operate
The full breakdown, with what's included at each tier, lives on the services page.
- Website creation & AI search visibility, so you're the answer when someone asks AI where to go
- Marketing & campaign management, so ad spend works instead of just spending
- Customer service & chat, so no call or message goes unanswered
- Workflow automation, so inventory, scheduling, and follow-up run themselves
- CRM & sales, so every customer, vendor, and lead lives in one place
Two owners who've been on your side of the counter
Tommy Speer
Tommy is an activator: equal parts sales instinct and vision, with a track record of building things from the ground up. He's launched a BBQ pop-up, runs Speer Family Farms, and founded Vate Creative, an event production and talent management company built on strong emotional connections between brands and audiences, serving clients across the U.S. from the Bay Area to Miami. Add a handful of other small businesses along the way, and he's spent his career in the room where deals get made.
Alan Ibarra
Alan builds fast and fixes faster. He's helped launch a multimillion-dollar USAID program in West Africa, run global client health systems out of the Office of the CEO, and made a habit of solving problems before anyone has to ask, creating workflows, process improvement plans, and building dashboards and AI agents that do the busywork so people don't have to. He comes from a family that has owned a small business for more than forty years.