He founded the anonymous English-language imageboard 4chan in October 2003, when he was still a teenager; he served as the site's head administrator until January 2015.

[1] Until 2008, when his name was revealed in The Wall Street Journal,[5] Poole took great lengths to protect his identity, going under the pseudonym of Robert "Bob" Bopkins in real life and as moot online.

[6][7] Several journalists, including Lev Grossman of Time and Monica Hesse of The Washington Post, noted that the name "Christopher Poole" could itself be a pseudonym.

[11] In 2009, The Washington Post reported that Poole had attended Virginia Commonwealth University for a few semesters before dropping out, and that he was living with his mother while trying to figure out how to monetize 4chan.

[9] Poole established 4chan on October 1, 2003, using translated source code from 2chan, and sought to combine the anime culture on 2chan with the community on Something Awful.

[15] In April 2010, Poole gave testimony in the Sarah Palin email hacking trial, United States of America v. David Kernell.

[17] Canvas officially launched on January 31, 2011, in beta, and featured digitally modified images created by users of the site.