Company founders do not always stay in the seat they started in, and Justin Fulcher‘s career illustrates that shift clearly. He co-founded RingMD in 2013 at age 21, building a telemedicine platform that connected patients with physicians across Asia and eventually operated in multiple countries. For years, he was the person steering the company’s daily direction.
That is no longer the case. Fulcher transitioned out of daily management at RingMD in subsequent years, though he remains affiliated with the company as a board member and minority shareholder. He holds no operational role there today. The shift let him step back from the operational demands of running a healthcare technology company while keeping a stake in its continued growth.
Making Room for New Work
That transition opened space for an entirely different chapter. In early 2025, Justin Fulcher joined the Department of Defense as a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, focused on acquisition reform and technology adoption. Contributions during that tenure included efforts that helped streamline software procurement timelines from years to months and modernized key IT systems inside the department.
The move from healthcare entrepreneur to defense advisor is not as unusual as it might first appear. Both roles required Fulcher to operate inside institutions with rigid processes, whether that meant regulatory requirements across different Asian markets or entrenched procurement rules inside a federal agency.
A Career Built in Stages
Justin Fulcher’s path shows a pattern of building something, stepping back once it can run without him, and then applying the same underlying instincts somewhere new. His current interests, including supply chain resilience for rare earth materials, and his ongoing doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies suggest that pattern is likely to continue rather than settle into a single fixed role. Visit this page on LinkedIn, for more information.
Learn more about Justin Fulcher on https://x.com/JustinFulcher