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An Army Vet who worked on the "Big Rigs", diesel powered machines as a mechanic, Portland, Oregon native Chris Benson was part of a unit that moved equipment around for the New England National Guard. He was admittedly aimless after high school and when his parents became obviously concerned about his lack of direction, the military seemed like a good place to put some discipline and purpose to Chris' life. And since he loved cars growing up and enjoyed tinkering with them, it was a natural to become a mechanic in the Army. But after his first duty cycle and deployment, he decided that re-enlisting would simply be more cycles of the same thing and since he had secured his GI Bill for college, he was ready for the private sector. He enrolled in a local community college and when a high school friend finished his term with the Navy, the two of them kept their promise of getting an apartment together and starting fresh. The road to a startup business is rarely a straight line and Chris' was no exception. A guitar player, Chris started as a music major and switched to an electrical engineer major. That didn't fill the bill either and at the suggestion of his father, got involved in computer science. He started with Symantec doing research in computer security and that lit his fire. But the Dot.Com collapse cut his job and changed his direction completely and Chris found his calling working for himself in a great niche fixing individuals' computers. Another business born from necessity. Veteran Founder Podcast with your hosts Josh Carter and Cynthia Kao We record the Veteran Founder Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland. Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main Website was designed by Cameron Grimes Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster Theme music: Artist: Tipsy Track: Kadonka Album: Buzzz Courtesy of Ipecac Records 10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes