Meet Chris Pontin
As the founder of Pontin Systems, I work directly with businesses to understand their challenges and develop practical solutions. My approach is rooted in curiosity, thoughtful engineering, and the belief that technology should make work easier.
I've always been curious about how things work.
My family's first Windows capable computer was a hand-me-down Packard Bell with a 75 MHz Pentium processor. It was already outdated by the time I got my hands on it, but I loved that machine. I was fascinated by what it could do, how it worked, and what else might be possible if I could get my hands on something better.
Around the age of ten or eleven, I wanted a computer of my own. We didn't have the money to spare for one, and my parents weren't particularly enthusiastic about the idea of me disappearing into my bedroom behind a screen.
Fortunately, my dad had a habit of bringing home old computers his office was throwing away. They'd accumulate around the house, waiting for the day he might find the time to tinker with them... but He never did.
One day, he made me an offer: if I could put together something that worked, I could keep it.
So I did.
I started taking machines apart, swapping components, troubleshooting problems, and figuring things out through trial and error. Before long, I had my own computer, assembled from parts that other people had given up on. I didn't know it at the time, but that experience would shape much of my life. It taught me that I didn't need to know everything before starting something new; I just needed to be curious, resourceful, and willing to figure things out.
More than two decades later, I still approach problems much the same way.
A career that never fit neatly into one box.
I've spent more than 15 years working professionally with technology, moving between web development, software engineering, e-commerce, systems integration, technical consulting, and project delivery.
My career began with hands-on web development and IT support for small businesses. Over time, I moved into agency environments, large e-commerce operations, and custom software development, eventually taking on roles that combined technical leadership, client relationships, and end-to-end project delivery.
I've built and maintained complex web applications, helped businesses navigate major platform migrations, developed custom integrations, improved customer experiences, and worked through more technical problems than I could begin to count.
But the most valuable thing I've learned isn't a programming language or a particular technology, it's how to connect the technical side of a problem with the people experiencing it.
Throughout my career, I've found myself drawn to the spaces between traditional job descriptions. I enjoy working directly with clients, understanding their businesses, identifying the real source of a problem, designing a solution, and then getting my hands dirty making it work.
In environments where those responsibilities are divided among several specialized roles, I've often found myself wanting to connect the dots; not because specialization is a bad thing, but because I do my best work when I can understand the whole picture.
Why I started Pontin Systems.
At a certain point, I realized that the kind of work I found most rewarding didn't fit particularly well into a conventional job description.
I'm a builder, but I don't want to spend my entire career just writing code. I enjoy engineering, but I'm equally interested in the people, processes, and business challenges that give the engineering its purpose.
I like asking questions, I like understanding why something works the way it does, especially when everyone involved has simply accepted that it has to be that way; and I love that moment when a complicated problem finally becomes clear, and you can see a practical way to solve it. Pontin Systems grew out of the desire to build a business around that entire process, rather than just one piece of it.
Becoming a father also changed how I thought about my time, my work, and what I wanted to build for the future. I wanted greater ownership over the value of my work, more freedom to pursue the projects that genuinely interested me, and the opportunity to build something meaningful for my family.
Starting Pontin Systems wasn't about leaving technology behind or reinventing myself, rather, it was about bringing together the things I've spent my life learning and creating a place where I can put them to their best use.