Sessions
Keynote Luncheon featuring Marcus Bullock, Entrepreneur, Justice Reform Advocate, & Ted Talk speaker
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Thu
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 personalized
postcards to any person in any cell in the US, with the
mission of using social connections to decrease
recidivism. 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 2018 and John
Legend’s Unlocked Futures business accelerators. He was selected as one of
The Root’s 2019 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, and serves as an advisor to
the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and Aspen
Institute’s Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund. Married with two children, Bullock’s
story has received coverage from Forbes, CNN, Washington Post, Black
Enterprise, and NPR.