About

Built to give organizations control over their own data

Common Nexus is a data sovereignty company. We help regulated organizations map their data exposure and close governance gaps before an audit forces the question.

We build the systems that turn data sovereignty from a talking point into a technical reality. That means starting with what organizations can already see, and exposing what they cannot.

Organizations adopt AI tools faster than governance frameworks can account for them. The gap between adoption and oversight is where risk accumulates.

Our approach follows four disciplines: inspect what is running, credential and authenticate every data pathway, validate against the applicable regulatory framework, and deliver documented evidence. Not recommendations built on assumptions. Evidence from your own environment.

We built Common Nexus on a legal and compliance foundation because technical controls without compliance alignment do not close risk. They move it. Every product and engagement we deliver is designed to support the governance programs our clients already operate, without creating new dependencies they cannot audit.

How We Think

Five anchors. Every decision.

We apply these when building products, scoping engagements, and designing pricing.

  • 01
    Clarity over optionality

    More choices create more friction. We reduce the decision surface for clients and users, even when more options would let us charge more.

  • 02
    Trust over short-term conversion

    No dark patterns. No pressure tactics. No claims we cannot substantiate. Long-term relationships require a clean start.

  • 03
    Simple pricing over maximum extraction

    Pricing should be readable in one pass. We do not design fee structures that obscure total cost.

  • 04
    Fewer decisions for users

    Every decision we can make on behalf of the user is one less source of error. We make defaults deliberate.

  • 05
    Future flexibility without exposing current complexity

    We build for where clients are going, not just where they are today, without burdening them with architecture decisions before they need to make them.

Founder

Thomas Harrison

Thomas founded Common Nexus to solve a problem he kept seeing from the inside: organizations adopting powerful tools without visibility into where their data actually goes.

He spent 13 years at Together Labs (formerly IMVU), leading infrastructure and operations for a platform serving millions of users, progressing from first dedicated IT hire to director-level responsibility across infrastructure, security, and site reliability.

He co-founded Madrone Technology Group, an MSP that delivered compute, network infrastructure, and security services to regulated clients in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure.

He helped found Hacker Dojo, one of Silicon Valley's longest-running nonprofit technology communities, and served as its infrastructure partner for 15 years. Earlier in his career, he led a six-person team to Rwanda to deploy early internet connectivity infrastructure for government, business, and education networks.

Thomas holds a BS in Business Administration from San Jose State University.

Photo

Free Assessment

Score your AI governance in 2 minutes

10 questions. Instant score across 4 dimensions. No data leaves your browser until you choose to share it.

Start the Scorecard