CTC 2025 PID070 Marcus Bullock

From Prison to Tech CEO; Connecting our World for Good

Author

Marcus Bullock

Founder/CEO, Flikshop, United States

Marcus Bullock is an entrepreneur, justice reform advocate, and TED speaker. Following his 2004 release from prison, he launched a construction business that grew to employ other returning citizens. Bullock is also founder and CEO of Flikshop, Inc., a software company that builds tools to help incarcerated people stay connected to their families and build community.

The Flikshop mobile app enables families and non-profit organizations to send mail to incarcerated people, with the mission of using social connections, tech, and data to help decrease recidivism around the world. He also founded the Flikshop School of Business, a program that teaches returning citizens life skills and entrepreneurship via computer coding and software development. As Forbes writes, “Will Flikshop, the Instagram for prisons, solve all of [the mass incarceration] issues? No. But Flikshop typifies the sort of work that needs support to scale to address these issues from many angles.”

Bullock is an inaugural cohort member of Techstars Anywhere and John Legend’s Unlocked Futures business accelerators. He was selected as one of The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans in the US. Shortly after, Bullock was named a 2020 Halcyon Incubator Fellow. Additional awards include: Aspen Ideas Award, WBJ 40 under 40, US State Park Distinguished 400 Award, and 2021 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Finalist. He is a member of the Justice Policy Institute’s board of directors, Advisory Board member for Princeton University’s Prison Teaching Initiative, serves as an advisor to the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and Aspen Institute’s Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund, and the current Entrepreneur in Residence at University of Baltimore. Married with three children, Bullock’s story has received coverage from from Forbes, New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, Black Enterprise, and NPR.

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