Chris Webb

Founder and Chairman of the Board ChowNow

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2026

Executive Summary

Chris Webb is the founder and Chairman of the Board of ChowNow, the Los Angeles company that gives independent restaurants their own commission-free online ordering, so they are less dependent on the delivery marketplaces. He co-founded it with Eric Jaffe in 2011 after working in finance in New York, and ran it as chief executive for more than a decade. In December 2024 the company appointed Kanika Soni as CEO, and Webb stayed on as chairman. The company’s own line on why it exists is his: restaurants “had no choice but to join marketplaces that poach their profits and their customers.”

Career Highlights

• Co-founded ChowNow with Eric Jaffe in 2011. SEC Form D filings from 2012 onward list both as executive officers and directors.
• Signed ChowNow’s 2016 Form D, for a Series A-5 preferred stock offering, as President.
• Led ChowNow as CEO until December 2024, when Kanika Soni was appointed chief executive. He remains Founder and Chairman of the Board.
• ChowNow now reports more than 22,000 restaurant partners.
• Built his early career on Wall Street at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers without a college degree.

Professional Journey

Webb did not go to college. According to a 2021 profile in dot.LA, he started in finance at 18 as an intern at Oppenheimer, then worked at the investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, where he kept finding himself drawn to technology.

He returned from New York to Los Angeles. His mother had invested in Tender Greens, a restaurant chain, and through it he saw how much of each order third-party ordering services took in fees. In 2011 he and Eric Jaffe started ChowNow, an app and online ordering system that let a restaurant take orders under its own name instead of paying marketplace commissions. ChowNow’s first SEC Form D was filed in September 2012 from an address in Venice, California, and names Webb and Jaffe as its executive officers and directors. It filed further Forms D in 2013, 2014 and 2016. By the 2016 filing, a Series A-5 preferred stock offering, it had moved to Playa Vista, and Webb signed as President.

He was chief executive through the company’s growth years. When dot.LA interviewed him in 2021, ChowNow had about 450 employees and backing from investors including Upfront and 3L.

In December 2024 ChowNow appointed Kanika Soni as Chief Executive Officer. Webb announced the change as founder and chairman, saying her vision and expertise would be “invaluable as we continue our growth.” ChowNow’s own site now names him Founder & Chairman of the Board and describes a network of more than 22,000 restaurant partners. The company is based in Culver City.

Education

He did not attend college. He began his finance career at 18 with an internship at Oppenheimer.