Meet the co-founder
Joseph J. Henderson
Husband, dad chef and Bears fan who also happens to design networks and write software. Co-Founder and Principal Engineer of Layer One, and its original founder.
Family first
Joseph and his wife, Deonda, live in the Hartland area, where their world revolves around their two kids, Caiden and Payton. That isn't a side note to the business. It's the reason for it.
Family first shapes how Layer One works and what it builds. Free Family Display keeps a household's week on one screen. Safeguard helps parents look out for their kids online without spying on them. And every client network gets the care Joseph would want for his own family's business.
"I build everything the way I'd want it built for my own family: honest, documented, and done right the first time."
Off the clock
When he steps away from the keyboard, you'll usually find him here.
Dad chef
Happiest at the grill. House specialties: BBQ ribs, steaks, butter chicken, chicken noodle soup and birria tacos.
Bear down
Wisconsin address, Chicago Bears loyalty. Every Sunday.
STEM advocate
Pushing for hands-on programs that get kids excited about science, like a middle school storm-chasing club.
Mentor
Invests in the people around him as much as the systems they run.
Podcast
The Mental Shift: interviews with local entrepreneurs about business growth and personal development.
Education
M.B.A., DePaul University · B.S., Governors State University
The novel
Incognito
A psychological thriller, written as J.J. Harts. Coming 2027.
He kills in plain sight. The FBI agent hunting him is his wife.
He's an IT engineer who knows how to disappear inside the systems he runs. She's the agent trained to find people who can't be found. Told from both sides, drawn from the real world of enterprise networking.
At work
Joseph works on both sides of IT: mission-critical enterprise networks and modern, AI-assisted software.
- Co-Founder and Principal Engineer, Layer One IT Consultants
- Team Leader, Enterprise Network Engineering and Telecom, Midwest Utility
- Region 5 Chair, Utility Technology Council (UTC), organizing regional summits and workforce development
Expertise: Cisco, Palo Alto, Fortinet, Arista and Nokia networks; React, Next.js, TypeScript and PostgreSQL; AI agents and automation; Proxmox, Docker and Synology; NERC CIP and NIST-aligned security programs.