Some careers make sense only when you look at them as a whole. Justin Fulcher‘s does. On the surface, a telemedicine founder in Asia and a defense procurement advisor in Washington seem to have little in common. Underneath, both roles are about the same problem: how to get complex, highly regulated systems to actually function for the people relying on them.
Fulcher’s path started with RingMD, which he co-founded in 2013 at age 21. The telemedicine platform connected patients with physicians remotely across Asia, eventually expanding to multiple countries and earning Fulcher a spot on Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 list in 2017. The company succeeded by working around infrastructure gaps rather than waiting for them to close.
A Different Kind of Institution
In early 2025, Justin Fulcher applied that same instinct in a very different setting, joining the Department of Defense as a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense focused on acquisition reform. Justin Fulcher contributions there reportedly included efforts to streamline software procurement timelines from years to months and to modernize IT systems across the department, alongside trips accompanying senior officials to engagements in the Indo-Pacific region.
He has summed up his approach directly, writing in a LinkedIn article that his priorities are execution over narrative, accountability over optics, and durability over speed. That statement works as well for a startup founder trying to keep a platform running on unreliable bandwidth as it does for an advisor trying to reform a decades old procurement system.
The Common Thread
Fulcher is now pursuing a Doctorate in International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, building on a Master’s degree in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies earned in 2023. For entrepreneurs and technologists eyeing regulated sectors, Justin Fulcher’s career offers a clear lesson: the hardest and most valuable work rarely happens where anyone is watching. Follow this page on Instagram, for related information.
More about Justin Fulcher on https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjustinfulcher