// Our Story
From a BBS at 13 to
the AI Era
Thirty-plus years of hands-on IT work, a deep curiosity that never quit, and the conviction that Midwest businesses deserve the same caliber of IT that Silicon Valley takes for granted.
The Beginning
Founded by Jeff Carney, DarkHorse IT traces back to a bulletin board system - a BBS - set up at age 13. Not because a teacher assigned it, not because it was easy, but because he wanted to know how it worked. Figured out from documentation, trial and error, and a stubborn refusal to quit when things broke. That instinct - dig in, understand it at the root, fix it right - drives our team to this day.
Building the Foundation
Formal IT training followed, then decades of real-world work across every layer of the stack: networks, servers, endpoints, security, cloud, and the people who depend on all of it. Every OS. Every generation of hardware. Every kind of failure mode. The kind of experience that can't be faked and doesn't come from certifications alone.
While the tech industry cycled through hype after hype, the work continued - head down, hands on the keyboard. The knowledge compounded.
FM Digital Solutions
What had been a lifetime of helping businesses with technology became official. FM Digital Solutions was founded in Fargo-Moorhead to bring professional managed IT services to the region's small and mid-sized businesses - the ones that couldn't afford enterprise pricing but deserved enterprise-grade thinking.
DarkHorse IT
DarkHorse. The unexpected competitor. The one you didn't see coming. The rebrand wasn't just a name change - it was a statement. DarkHorse IT is what you get when you stop pretending that good IT is only for big companies with big budgets, and start building something that can actually compete on outcomes.
The AI Convergence
When AI tools went from "interesting experiments" to "business-critical infrastructure" almost overnight, our team had spent years watching the technology mature. The convergence of affordable AI, cloud infrastructure, and automation tooling created an opportunity that DarkHorse IT was built for - helping real businesses harness real tools without the enterprise overhead.
Today, DarkHorse IT serves clients from our Moorhead, MN base while reaching businesses nationwide. Our team is also a regular on KFGO 790 AM, bringing practical tech advice to the Fargo-Moorhead community every Thursday morning.
Let's talk about your IT
Whether you need managed IT, a security audit, or just want to understand what AI could actually do for your business - we're easy to reach.