Who is Chad Tennent?
If you're going to take business advice from someone, you should know whether they've actually done it. Here's my honest answer.
I'm Chad Tennent. I co-founded Wooster Entrepreneurs United, I run Scroll Theory Media, and I've spent years starting, scaling, selling, and yes, closing real businesses right here in Ohio. Not theory. Not a course I bought off someone's webinar. Real payroll, real customers, real wins, and a few real losses that taught me more than the wins ever did.
Here's the short version.
Woosh Delivery (2018)
I started Woosh Delivery in 2018 as a local delivery service in Wooster, and it grew fast. Before long we were operating in 14 locations across Ohio and generating millions of dollars for local restaurants and businesses that could never have built that kind of reach on their own. I sold Woosh in October of 2025, and I still help with the marketing today.
Seared
Seared is what I always wanted Woosh to become, and I didn't get to build it until after Woosh sold. It's a restaurant technology platform that hands independent restaurants everything they need to win online: their own online ordering, a branded mobile app, loyalty and rewards, and automated marketing, all in one place. The whole point is that a local restaurant should take orders directly and keep its own customers, instead of handing 30 percent of every ticket to DoorDash to be their ordering system. It's the business I'm building now, and it's the clearest version of what I've always believed, that local can compete with the chains and win.
Swoop Transportation (2023)
Not everything I've built is a success story, and I think that matters more, not less. In 2023 I built and scaled a transportation company called Swoop Transportation. It grew to a team of 17 full-time employees and moved people all across Northeast Ohio. We were serving thousands of clients a month. On paper it looked great. But a big part of the model leaned on subsidized programs, and when that funding ran out, the numbers stopped working. It wasn't profitable without the subsidies, so we shut it down fast and on purpose, instead of bleeding it out and dragging everyone down with it.
That one cost me. It also taught me the lesson I now give away for free: a business that only works because of someone else's money isn't your business. Know your real numbers. Build something that stands on its own.
Everything in between, and Scroll Theory
Around all of that I've started more small businesses than I can list here. Some worked, some didn't, all of them taught me something. The pattern I kept seeing was simple. The businesses that won had a real online presence. The ones that struggled were practically invisible. In today's world a strong website and a real digital footprint isn't a nice-to-have, it's everything. So I started Scroll Theory Media to build that for other local owners, the kind of site that loads fast, shows up on Google, and actually makes the phone ring.
Why I'm telling you this
Not to flex. I'm telling you because Wooster Entrepreneurs United is built on one idea: operators helping operators. Not a chamber luncheon. Not a guru on a stage who's never made payroll. Just business owners who've actually been through it, sharing what we learned with the ones coming up behind us.
I've signed the front of paychecks and the back of them. I've hired, and I've had to let people go. I've sold a company and I've closed one. I've watched a good local business lose customers to a worse competitor for no reason other than the competitor showed up better online. I've made money and I've lost it, and I'm still here, still building.
That's the experience I bring to the table for our members. My co-founder Seth Scrimo brings his own, and his story is worth its own post, which is coming. But this one's mine.
If you're an owner who's serious about growing, that's exactly who WEU is for. Come to a meeting. Sit down with me for a Business Breakdown. Let's get to work.