Food sovereignty is a human right.
Tekel was built because we believe the relationship between a grower and their community is sacred — and it should never have a middleman. We're here to restore that relationship, at scale.
“Tekel connects people around goods and services, through a better way to exchange value.”
— Daniel M. Sanchez, Founder
The Name
“weighed, judged, measured”
“you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting”
Biblical Context · Daniel 5:27
“Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin”
Written on the wall by the hand of God and interpreted by Daniel, these words signaled the fall of Belshazzar and the empire of Babylon. A divine reckoning — systems weighed, judged, and found wanting when they fail the people they are meant to serve.
Tekel carries that weight intentionally. Every middleman, every extractive system, every food monopoly will be weighed. And found wanting.
What we stand for
Weighed Fair
Every transaction on Tekel is measured against a principle of fairness. Tekel — from the Aramaic, meaning 'weighed, judged, measured' — reminds us that in food, as in justice, the scales must always balance.
Grower First
The person who grows the food is the most important person in the chain. Every product decision, every fee structure, every feature — we ask: does this serve the grower?
Privacy by Right
Your food choices, your location, your trading history — none of it belongs to a corporation. We are building toward zero-knowledge privacy as a non-negotiable baseline.
Community Owned
By 2027, Tekel will be governed by a community council owned by its members. We are building toward a future where the platform itself cannot be captured by any single interest.
Our story
Daniel watched his bar get shut down for a year during COVID-19. Small businesses collapsed. Communities fractured. People lost their autonomy overnight — and he decided to build something that couldn't be stopped by anyone.
In Carbon County, Utah — high desert, nearly 6,000 feet above sea level — Daniel's father, a retired coal miner, has cultivated a garden for 50 years. Through decades of trial and error, he and his neighbor mastered composting, seed selection, and crop rotation. But he had no platform to pass that knowledge on. One day, it would die with him. Tekel exists to change that — giving every grower a place to share their craft, preserve their knowledge, and receive fair value for what they grow.
Anthony called Daniel from Argentina, where a currency crisis was leaving families struggling — not from lack of resources, but because the money system itself was broken. Teach people to grow their own food. Exchange it directly with neighbors. Cut out the middlemen. Tekel was born on that call.
Anthony brought over two decades of software engineering — from managing communications infrastructure for 25,000 troops in Afghanistan to architecting systems at Cisco — to build the platform from scratch. Daniel brought entrepreneurial grit and a deep belief in community.
The name TEKEL (Te'kel) comes from the Aramaic — 'weighed, judged, measured.' Part of 'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,' the divine writing on the wall interpreted by Daniel (5:27) that signaled the fall of Belshazzar and Babylon. Every system will be weighed and found wanting when it fails the people it was meant to serve. That is the north star of every decision we make.
TKL merit credit system launches. Secure trade escrow, community-powered fair value algorithms, and reputation anchoring — the full barter economy goes live.
The team
United by the belief that food should be free.
Daniel Sanchez doesn't come from money or connections. He comes from Carbon County, Utah, where his father worked the coal mines and his mother patched people up in the ER. What he inherited wasn't capital—it was something more valuable: an uncompromising work ethic and a bone-deep understanding of what working people need to thrive.
That drive took him from pressure washing his way through college to co-owning restaurants, building a real estate portfolio, and running Mootsy's—a downtown Spokane bar where everyone feels appreciated and welcomed. Daniel learned how to build community around a common interest, creating spaces where people come together. But in 2020, the government shut down his bar for a year during COVID-19. He watched small businesses collapse and communities fracture while people lost their autonomy overnight.
That's when the idea crystallized: create a new way for people to prosper in local communities that couldn't be stopped by anyone. Teach people to grow their own food and trade directly with their neighbors. Build economic resilience from the ground up. Tekel was born from that conviction. The name itself comes from Daniel's daily Bible reading—a reminder that systems will be measured and found wanting if they don't serve the people they're meant to protect.
Daniel brings two decades of entrepreneurial experience building things from scratch and improving communities through the businesses he creates. At Tekel, he's the people guy—developing relationships, building community, and handling the day-to-day operations that keep the platform running and growing.
Daniel is engaged to be married to Abbie and shares his life with Bowie, his dog who's become an unofficial member of the Tekel team—introducing Daniel to new people along the way. Based in Florida now, Daniel works out six days a week and loves building things with his hands, creating something real from nothing.
Daniel believes working people deserve systems that empower them rather than extract from them. With Tekel, he's building exactly that—one community, one garden, one trade at a time.
Join the movement.
Whether you grow, trade, cook, or just eat — there's a place for you in the Tekel community.