Chris Shellenbarger moved from San Francisco, California to Fargo, North Dakota to launch ChenPo, a technology company start-up named after his dog. As a software engineer, Shellenbarger is excited about creating products that will lead to future success and stability for ChenPo. “I have always wanted to work for myself… I am not planning to build ChenPo around one idea or product. Instead, I envision the company creating products that generate long-term success,” explained Shellenbarger.
Education and Hard work
Chris Shellenbarger grew up in Colorado and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science from Colorado Technical University. In 2013, Chris was pursuing a doctorate when he connected with friends in San Francisco about jobs in that area. Within a few weeks of that phone call, Shellenbarger was working for Yammer, a company offering enterprise social networking. “As a high school drop-out, I have always felt pressure to challenge myself and work hard…. working in the huge tech industry of San Francisco presented opportunities and a good quality of life,” said Shellenbarger.
For several years, Shellenbarger watched as company after company raised capital and sold while others faced going out of business altogether. “I observed successful companies move through the phases of raising money and selling at the right time. I also observed poor management of invested dollars and success found in the wrong places,” explained Shellenbarger. This observation led Shellenbarger to contemplate his future career aspirations as an entrepreneur.
During his tenure at Yammer, Shellenbarger was often called upon for software engineering issues that were commonplace in the industry. However, Shellenbarger noted, “for all of the innovation in the tech industry, there was no innovation in the business to business industry that helped software engineers in their creative process,” said Shellenbarger. Seeing this opportunity, CloudRepo was created by Shellenbarger as the first product under the ChenPo name.
Foundation for the Future
In 2017, Shellenbarger is operating CloudRepo as a subscription and service product that will lead to a foundation for future product creation at ChenPo. “CloudRepo is a cloud-based platform that helps save time and resources for software engineers,” explained Shellenbarger. Shellenbarger plans to build the customer base and revenue with CloudRepo so it can be the “MVP product” for ChenPo.
Overall, Shellenbarger dreams of a company that allows for him and the future ChenPo team to be a creative hub of software products. “My pie-in-the-sky plan is to take 24 months and create a product each month… from that investment of time, ChenPo would have a handful of products that would work for future success,” said Shellenbarger. With that goal in place, ChenPo is looking for products that customers desire and could purchase. This creation will take place from ChenPo’s headquarters in Fargo.
Learn more from Chris Shellenbarger and ChenPo as he speaks at 1 Million Cups Fargo on Wednesday, November 8th, 2017 at 9:15 a.m. at The Stage at Island Park.
