About tendry
Good organizations shouldn't have to keep everything in someone's head.
tendry started with a simple observation: small organizations depend on more technology, people and processes than ever before, but rarely have the time or resources to document how all of it actually works together.
That shouldn't require an IT department to solve.
tendry started with the same story showing up again and again.
Working alongside small organizations, we kept seeing versions of the same problem.
- The website had been created by one person.
- The domain was registered by someone else.
- A volunteer had opened an account years earlier.
- The Executive Director knew part of the picture.
- The Treasurer knew another part.
- Important processes worked because somebody simply knew what to do.
And most of the time, everything was fine — until something changed.
Someone left. A password or account needed to be recovered. A renewal appeared. A board member asked a question nobody could answer quickly.
The problem wasn't that these organizations were careless. They had simply grown the way real organizations grow.
tendry started from the belief that there should be an easier way to understand all of this without becoming a technology expert.
Clarity shouldn't depend on one person remembering everything.
How we want to build tendry.
The way tendry is built matters just as much as what it does.
- 01
Make people feel understood.
Start with the reality people are actually living in — not the way software thinks their organization should work.
tendry should meet people where they are, including when the answer is “I'm not sure.”
- 02
Keep it simple.
Complexity already exists. Our job is to make it understandable, not add another layer to it.
Clear language, thoughtful choices and fewer unnecessary things are features.
- 03
Make an impact.
Build things that genuinely help organizations operate better, preserve important knowledge and spend more of their energy on the work that matters.
Useful beats impressive.
- 04
Do good along the way.
Build responsibly. Treat people fairly. Respect the organizations that trust tendry with their information.
We want tendry to be a company we're proud to build alongside organizations doing meaningful work.
Organizations don't run because software exists.
They run because people care enough to keep things moving.
Built from working alongside organizations.
tendry was founded by Chris DenHerder after years of working with organizations around growth, strategy, systems, people and communication — including hands-on work with small nonprofits through Connection Built.
Again and again, the same challenge surfaced: important organizational knowledge was scattered across people, software, inboxes, spreadsheets and old accounts. tendry grew from wanting to solve that problem in a way that felt practical rather than technical.
The belief behind the product is simple: technology should make organizations more capable — not more dependent on technology.
The people doing good work shouldn't have to become technology experts just to understand how their organization works.
tendry exists to make that understanding easier to build, easier to share and harder to lose.