He was the founder and longtime CEO of Benetech, a Silicon Valley nonprofit technology company that develops software applications to address unmet needs of users in the social sector.

Fruchterman was born in Washington D.C.[citation needed] and grew up in the Chicago area.

in Applied Physics from Caltech in 1980[2] and went on to Stanford University to pursue a PhD, but left school to join the Percheron private enterprise rocket project as its electrical engineer.

[4] In the Fall of 2018, Betsy Beaumon assumed the CEO role of Benetech[5] and Fruchterman started a new nonprofit project called Tech Matters[6] with a stated goal of taking what Benetech has learned about leveraging technology to help other nonprofits become more effective.

In 2003, Fruchterman received the Francis Joseph Campbell award from the American Library Association[9] for outstanding contribution to the advancement of library service for people who are blind or physically disabled.