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.
“We believe the relationship between a grower and their community is sacred. It existed before supply chains, before corporations, before the internet. We're not building something new — we're restoring something ancient.”
— Tekel.market founding team
What we stand for
Weighed Fair
Every transaction on Tekel is measured against a principle of fairness. Our name comes from the ancient unit of weight — because in food, as in justice, the scales must be balanced.
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 DAO 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.
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 comes from an ancient unit of weight, a reminder that systems will be measured and found wanting if they don't serve the people they're meant to protect. Every design decision flows from that principle.
TKL barter token economy launches. Smart contract escrow, on-chain fair value algorithms, and community reputation anchoring — the full decentralized 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. When he called Anthony with the concept, Tekel was born. 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 for the first time and shares his life with Bowie, his dog who's become an unofficial member of the Tekel team—introducing Daniel to new people and even chiming in on calls with Anthony. 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.
Living in Argentina during a currency crisis, Anthony saw something that didn't make sense: a country rich in natural resources, where half the population lived in poverty while their savings evaporated and their work couldn't keep pace with inflation. Families were struggling not because they lacked resources, but because the money system itself was broken.
That's when Daniel called with an idea: teach people to grow their own food and exchange it directly with their neighbors. Turn food into currency. Cut out the middlemen extracting value from local communities, and help farmers get more for their effort while delivering fresher, higher-quality food to their neighbors. It felt like a godsend—a connection of two minds aligned by the same vision. Anthony decided right there on the phone: "Let's do it. I'll build it for free."
Anthony brings over two decades of building production systems that work under pressure. As a Warrant Officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps—a rank reserved for the top 1% of technical specialists—he managed communication infrastructure for 25,000 troops across Afghanistan, even building critical software in a combat zone that earned him the Bronze Star Medal. That experience taught him something essential: when people are counting on you, you find a way to deliver, no matter the obstacles.
Since 2000, he's been building software professionally, from founding his first startup serving the hospitality industry to architecting systems at Cisco and building a decentralized finance protocol from scratch. He knows how to take an idea from concept to something real that people can use.
But what drives him isn't the technology—it's the mission. Anthony is a father of two who believes communities deserve systems that work for them, not against them. A deeply spiritual person who values a personal relationship with God, he operates on the definitions of love as "the will to nurture" and forgiveness as "gratitude for the experience." He's passionate about learning and studies a wide range of subjects, speaks Spanish, loves the warmth of Hispanic culture, and spends his free time outdoors rollerblading, diving, climbing, or playing classical guitar.
Anthony is committed to standing up for the Tekel community, never compromising the integrity of what they're building together, and decentralizing the entire platform to guarantee it. When he started development on Tekel, he had one goal: give people the tools to take control of their food and their economic future.
Join the movement.
Whether you grow, trade, cook, or just eat — there's a place for you in the Tekel community.