Caleb Hurd is a technologist, dad of two, and the founder of Chatperone: a safe AI chat app built specifically for youth with full parental visibility.

With 20 years of experience across companies like Chick-fil-A, Citrix, and Cox Inc., Caleb has spent his career at the intersection of consumer technology and how it directly impacts people. He was one of the first software engineers at Elf on the Shelf's digital platform, where he built COPPA-compliant systems for millions of children - giving him a firsthand understanding of what "safe by design" actually means in practice.

The idea for Chatperone started at home. Like most parents, Caleb couldn't find an AI tool he trusted to interact safely with his own kids. Youth are an afterthought in today's growing landscape of AI chatbots. He wanted one that wouldn't do their homework for them, wouldn't have unsupervised conversations he'd never see, and wouldn't expose them to content designed that parents or an educator should be involved in. So he built it himself.

Caleb is currently completing a master's degree in AI and is building Chatperone independently: no VC funding, no PR firm, just a parent solving a problem he lived.