Founder
Founder, competitor, entrepreneur, and practical business builder.
Fran Tarkenton’s name is more than a brand. His approach to competition, teamwork, business, and problem-solving shapes how Tarkenton serves clients today.
Always In Motion
Fran Tarkenton has always been known for movement.
Fran Tarkenton is an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, entrepreneur, founder, and longtime advocate for helping businesses solve practical problems.
His football career made him famous, but the traits that defined him on the field also shaped his business life: preparation, urgency, resilience, improvisation, and the ability to make the people around him better.
Fran was never interested in standing still. Not on the field. Not in business. Not when the world changed around him.
That mindset became part of Tarkenton.
The Business Story
It started long before the football career ended.
Fran was building businesses while he was still playing professional football. He sold, invested, learned, competed, asked questions, made mistakes, and kept moving.
Over the decades, his work has crossed industries, audiences, technologies, and business models. But the throughline has remained the same: find real problems, talk to people, build practical solutions, and keep improving.
Tarkenton grew out of that operating mindset.
The company began with a focus on helping small and mid-size businesses access tools, resources, and support they needed to compete. Over time, that work expanded into technology platforms, partner programs, software systems, business education, customer engagement tools, AI-enabled workflows, privacy intelligence, and long-term technology partnerships.
The work has evolved. The builder’s mindset has not.
The Founder’s Standard
The mission of business is to help people.
Fran’s core beliefs still shape how Tarkenton works today, most importantly this central idea.
Business is not just strategy, software, process, or growth. It is people helping people solve problems. Customers need help. Teams need better tools. Leaders need clearer decisions. Partners need trust. Organizations need systems that make the work better instead of harder.
That is why Tarkenton starts with the business challenge, not the tool.
We ask what needs to improve, who needs to be helped, what is getting in the way, and what kind of solution can create lasting value. Then we bring the strategy, technology, development, implementation, and support needed to move the work forward.
Fran’s Business Philosophy
The mission of business is to help people.
People have to talk to people.
There are no silver bullets.
Reinvent yourself every day.
Have a sense of desperation.
Learn more from your failures than your successes.
Nothing takes the place of hard work.
A Practical Mindset
Built for a noisy technology market.
Today, Tarkenton helps organizations solve operational and growth challenges through technology strategy, custom software, AI and automation, operational modernization, customer engagement, privacy intelligence, partner platforms, and long-term support.
The company works with leaders who need experienced people to help them decide what should be built, how it should work, how it should connect to the business, and how it can keep improving after launch.
Fran’s name is on the company, but his role is bigger than name recognition.
His standard still guides the work: help people, solve real problems, make the team better, and keep moving.
Bring us the business challenge.
Tell us what you are trying to improve, build, automate, protect, or grow. Tarkenton can help you define the path, build the right solution, and keep improving what comes next.