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From App Pro to Chief Venture Officer

Jody Chaffin’s Full-Circle Startup Story.

Entrepreneurial journeys don’t always look the same, and that’s exactly what makes them so powerful.

For Jody Chaffin, it started with a spark of innovation when the iPhone was still a novelty. In 2011, he and co-founder David Rutter launched The App Pros, a mobile app development company focused on helping small to mid-sized businesses — those without internal tech teams — leverage custom software. That decision kicked off a wild ride of learning, growth and evolution.

By the time efactory opened its doors in 2013, Jody and David were already embedded in the local innovation ecosystem, working out of the Jordan Valley Innovation Center just next door. They were the first to move into the new efactory space (literally).

“We got to pick our office. We had our choice,” Jody remembers.

First Through the Door, First to Exit

In 2015, The App Pros became efactory’s first official exit, acquired by one of their own customers. That acquisition merged their team with others in the manufacturing and kiosk industries, a challenge that led Jody to become president of a newly formed company, Interactive Dynamics.

But the merger also taught him something valuable: “It was a hard two years because I wasn’t doing what I loved.”

While his heart remained in software and startups, Jody gained deep leadership experience, and, maybe most importantly, clarity on what really fueled his passion.

From the OR to the Cloud

Post-exit, Jody’s career wound through fascinating roles, from working on medical device innovation with doctors at Mercy’s former R&D unit (at JVIC once again), to building software for Fortune 500 clients at Worldwide Technologies, to leading engineering teams at cloud hosting powerhouse Digital Ocean.

Each stop along the way added new layers to his expertise, but something was calling him back to startups. In fact, a simple reflective exercise at Digital Ocean helped crystallize his next move.

“If I didn’t have to get paid, what would I want to do?”

His answer: help startups succeed, and build cool tech from scratch.

A Dream Role at codefi

That’s when serendipity — and a well-timed lunch with codefi CEO Dr. James Stapleton — changed everything.

“He started describing this role, and I said, ‘I have a document that shows you just described my dream job.’”

In early 2025, Jody stepped into that role as Chief Venture Officer at codefi, an efactory partner organization focused on empowering tech entrepreneurs and launching bold new initiatives. Now, he’s helping others navigate the same journey he once took, only now from the other side of the table.

Advice from the Trenches

For technical founders, Jody has two key pieces of advice:

  1. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. “Too many founders build something and hope people will want it,” he says. “Start with problem discovery. Ask how people are solving it today — and how they wish they could.”
  2. Learn to sell (even if it’s scary). “The best advice I ever got? You’re a technical founder — you have to be out selling every day,” Jody says. “If you’re not filling the pipeline now, you’ll be out of work in six months.”

Jody’s trajectory shows that entrepreneurial success can mean pivoting from a passion project. Doing so can be liberating, allowing you to build something meaningful, learn from every twist, and use your experience to elevate the next generation.

We’re proud to count Jody as one of efactory’s earliest alumni — and thrilled to see him helping startups thrive at codefi, right back here inside efactory’s Brick City location.