I am a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of MindTouch, a popular open source business application and collaboration platform used by millions. The company is privately held. My friend and business partner, Steve Bjorg, and I started the company in 2005. In two years we built the company from a small open source project into one of the World’s most popular and positioned it first in collaboration and in the top 5 projects overall (out of 200,000, source: SourceForge.net).
I started my first profitable business when I was nine. My home-made edible glue gunk (EGG) was a short lived, but popular, fad. My next business, a couple years later—buying wholesale miniatures and selling them at a markup—was less successful. Around the time I started my first business I became interested in technology; specifically computers and network based software. I was intrigued by how network connected computers could help people connect with one another better.
After high school I traveled, canoed and camped extensively. During this time, which I consider my Dharma Bum days, I worked as a dishwasher, busboy, waiter, line cook, floor manager, Sous Chef and Executive Chef.
I have helped start some non-profits and I have assisted many others. Primarily these have focused on improving under-served predominately minority communities. I have long been interested in assisting 
communities to bridge the digital divide through access to computers and the Internet. All my non-profit involvement has included curricula layered with technology rather than just technology. Some of the more interesting organizations included tutoring at a distance, empowering foster families with free access to computers, the Internet and training, and creating a dozen community centers with a total of 300 computer workstations.
I owned and operated a technology consultancy, Gurion Digital, that specialized in information portals for small and medium sized businesses. I was awarded the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship. I attended the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill where I received my B.S. in Computer Science.
Microsoft recruited me out of college and I worked in a small research team under Craig Mundie, then one of the Chief Technology Officers at Microsoft, in Advanced Strategies and Policies. My work was on a large scale distributed systems where I had the honor of working with Chuck Thacker, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, my current business partner (Steve Bjorg) and about ten other equally impressive individuals who do not yet have Wikipedia articles written about them. Strangely, there is a Wikipedia article about me.
I am a founding member and advisor to the CodePlex Foundation, an organization sponsored by Microsoft that is tasked with enabling the exchange of code and understanding among software companies and open source communities. I was the editor to MCGraw Hill’s “Enterprise 2.0 Implementation: Integrate Web 2.0 Services into Your Enterprise“. I have contributed as a blogger and writer to Fortune Magazine, GigaOm OSTATIC and TechWeb Internet Evolution. I am also a published poet in both print and online journals. I have had my photographs used by a variety of news publications including the Wall Street Journal (blog) and I have sold my photography for stock production usage.
I often speak at conferences and Universities on the topics of Web Oriented Architecture (WOA), entrepreneurship, leadership, open source, business and software.
Interests
I love my work and it permeates my life. However, I love my family even more. I am blessed with a beautiful and supportive wife, Tara. Tara and I met in 1996 when I still had very long hair, earrings, no college degree and only duct taped cushions for a bed and no furniture in my run down apartment in Duluth, MN that cost me $275 a month to rent. I did have an excellent view of Lake Superior, an impressive library, a Chrysler K-car wagon and a striking travel log.
Tara and I married in New Orleans June 19, 1999. We have two wonderful children Ashby and Roesevelt. They are the greatest source of joy in my life. We currently reside in San Diego, CA. In my free time I enjoy cycling, photography, road trips with my family and I have a voracity for reading.
Short Bio
As co-founder and CEO of MindTouch, Aaron, in only two years, has grown a small open source project into one of the World’s most popular and positioned it as #1 in open source collaboration (source: Sourceforge.net) with millions of users globally and an impressive customer list of Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies and mid-market companies. Prior to co-founding MindTouch, Aaron was a member of Microsoft’s Advanced Strategies and Policies division and worked on distributed systems research. Previously he owned and operated a successful software and Information Technology consulting firm, Gurion Digital LLP. He has held senior positions at software startups, has helped to launch several non-profits and businesses outside the software industry. Aaron received his BS in Computer Science from University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. He resides in San Diego, CA with his wife and two children.
Contact
Twitter: @Roebot
Skype: aaron.fulkerson
Facebook: Aaron.Fulkerson (I do not accept friending from people I have not met)
LinkedIn: AaronFulkerson (I’m more open to connections here than at Facebook)
