Chris DeSalvo is founder and chief executive of Keyhole Software, an AI development, implementation and consulting firm in Lenexa, Kansas, that he started with David Pitt in 2008. He handled the business side of the partnership, known for building client relationships, and Keyhole has stayed privately held with no outside investor funding.
A Noncompete, a Recession and a First Year from Savings
He met Pitt in the 1990s at CrossLogic Corporation, an application development consultancy where he built relationships with companies that needed its developers while Pitt worked as a consultant (Keyhole Software). After CrossLogic was sold to Number Six Software and then Advanced Technology Systems Corporation, the two struck out on their own. A six-month noncompete kept them from former clients, and months later the economy collapsed, so they lived on savings and turned to small local businesses and startups that had no IT departments. Enterprise clients came back as the market recovered, including American Century Investments for a 90,000-hour architecture upgrade.