Chris Whatley

Chris Whatley

Chief Technology Officer

 

Chris is an entrepreneur, manager, and hands-on software engineer with decades of experience across diverse industries including technology, entertainment, automotive, and financial services.

Chris studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, but left the doctorate program A.B.D. to work as a software engineer. After a rewarding few years at NeXT Computer, Inc. and Apple, he launched CodeFab in New York where he built some of the earliest dynamic publishing, entertainment, and online music store web sites.

Later on, Chris spent nearly 10 years at Viacom's Kids and Family division leading an ever-expanding collection of teams that built and evolved properties like Nick, Nickmom, Shockwave, ParentsConnect, AddictingGames, NickJR, and Noggin as well as their underlying common infrastructure.

Switching gears from megacorp to startup, Chris went small and joined as the first technical hire at DipJar, Inc., where he led the team that built the systems and infrastructure that powered the successful launch of a company whose goal is to enable simple, frictionless gratuities and donations with a compact and friendly payment terminal.

Prior to joining Second Foundation Partners, Chris was a co-founder of Alpha Drive, Inc. a cloud simulation services provider for the emerging autonomous vehicle industry.

Chris's favorite things are experimenting in the kitchen and traveling with his wife Liang and their children, Charlotte and Sanford.