Brad Anderson

A Technology Focus That Started with a Commodore

Brad Anderson has always been enthralled with technology. From his first Commodore computer to riding the .com boom, exploring blockchain's potential, diving into machine learning, and now architecting autonomous systems, Brad has spent decades leveraging technology to accomplish missions that matter.

"I've participated in three major tech waves over the last 30 years," Brad reflects, "and what fascinates me isn't the technology itself—it's finding that sweet spot where emerging tech solves problems that were previously too expensive or complex to tackle."

This philosophy led Brad to found Fruition in 2003, initially as a SaaS platform. Over two decades, he's morphed the company to match technological capabilities with real-world problems, always staying just behind the bleeding edge. "The bleeding edge means bleeding cash," Brad notes. "We're not in the business of driving totally novel technologies. We adopt proven innovations to solve business problems and tackle technical debt that's been accumulating for years."

The Intellectual Challenge

A tech guy first, Brad's decision to attend law school might seem counterintuitive. "It felt like the hardest intellectual challenge at the time," he explains. This was during the early days of the .com boom at CU Boulder, where he witnessed firsthand how university curricula lagged behind while technology progressed significantly every quarter.

"Law school develops a systematic approach to breaking down complex problems," Brad says. "But watching how slowly education adapted to technology taught me something equally valuable—the importance of building systems that can evolve."

Building Beyond Fruition

Brad's ability to bridge technology and business led him to co-found The Eye Academy of America, which grew into a leading regional eye care provider before its successful exit in 2016 to Cortec. The experience reinforced his belief that technology should enable business transformation, not complicate it.

"Whether it's healthcare or government, the pattern is the same," Brad observes. "Organizations get buried under accumulated technical debt and compliance requirements while missing opportunities to actually improve how they serve people."

Transforming Government Through Practical Innovation

Today, Brad focuses Fruition at the intersection of cybersecurity and machine learning, particularly for government clients. When a major international airport came to Fruition with heavy compliance requirements, Brad assisted in aligning compliance requirements with practical applications to improve proactive threat response.

"One goal we are working toward now is not only improving incident response times but eliminating the need for humans to respond at all through the use of connected AI-backed systems."

This practical approach to innovation drives the new development of the Fruition Control Plane (FCP), a platform that brings AI capabilities to government while maintaining the security and compliance these organizations require. It's about amplifying human capability, not replacing it.

The Education Challenge

Brad's current exploration goes beyond building technology—he's examining how colleges can integrate machine learning into regular curricula without getting left behind or, worse, hindering AI development.

"We're facing the same challenge I saw at CU during the .com boom, but exponentially accelerated," Brad explains. "How do you teach something that's evolving faster than a semester's schedule? How do you prepare students for jobs that don't exist yet using AI tools that will be obsolete by graduation?"

It's the kind of systemic challenge that energizes Brad—one that requires not just technical solutions but rethinking fundamental approaches to learning and adaptation.

Mountain Perspective

When he's not architecting solutions or pondering education's future, you'll find Brad in the Colorado mountains—skiing, cycling, or dirt biking with his family. "I do believe nature brings clarity," he says. "It reminds me that the best solutions are often the simplest ones—the ones that just work when you need them most."

His daughters have reinforced the importance of continuous learning, whether it's mastering GS turns on the slopes or staying ahead of evolving cyber threats.

What Gets Him Up Every Morning

After two decades of building and evolving Fruition, Brad remains driven by the same core mission: finding where technology can solve problems that matter. From protecting critical infrastructure to reimagining education for an AI world, it's about making real impact.

"We're at an inflection point," Brad says. "AI isn't just another technology wave—it's fundamentally changing how we solve problems. But it has to be done right, secure, and focused on outcomes that matter versus just completing a task. That intersection of possibility and the fear of irrelevance from new technologies. That's what gets me up and cranking early every morning."

For Brad, success isn't measured in certifications (even though he and Fruition have many) or bleeding-edge implementations. It's measured in airports that run more safely, governments that serve citizens more effectively, businesses that gain a competitive advantage, and maybe just maybe an education system that can keep pace with the technology revolution it's supposed to be preparing students for.