James Norman
Black Operator Ventures, Managing Partner
Career Highlights
Pivoting my e-commerce car audio business into a custom/concept vehicle design firm that built cars for major OEMS, Fast & Furious, and HNWI
Getting my first real tech startup, Ubi Video, to an IP acquisition offer after having only $100k in funding and countless challenges as a first-time CEO
Building Transparent Collective, a top performing pre-accelerator for women + POC. Helped 90 founders raise over $90M in the 7 cohorts we've hosted
Successfully building Black Ops VC while continuing to scale my startup Pilotly, investing in amazing Black founders that would otherwise not have been fully funded
FailuresBiggest failure I've had in 2007 was when we took on too many projects for the staff we had at Shift Marketing (a car building company). Our delivery of a Lincoln concept vehicle failed because the transport had an accident (we didn't have the capital to hire professional transport). The car could not be shown and we never won another RFP from Ford
Hobbies
Music, Wine, and Cars
Talk to me about
Sorting through the noise in the industry
Fundraising as an emerging manager
Black founders
Founder mentality
Vision
F1 + Car Stuff
I want to talk to you about
LPs
Building high-performing exec teams
Professional comms that incorporates
Empathy
