© Spark Capital 2024
As a general partner on Spark’s growth team, James is focused on partnering with founders building fintech and software platforms across industry sectors. James joined Spark from Allen & Company, where he advised numerous high-growth private and public technology companies such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Roku on M&A and capital raising. James’s career began in his childhood and teenage years as an actor, performing as Gavroche in Les Misérables on Broadway among many other theatre, TV and movie roles.
He believes that some of the most important insights about a company come from listening intently to customers and marrying that with the founder’s vision of the future. This has led to an interest in founders building in historically underserved software markets such as logistics and real estate, for example, where founders acutely understand their customer’s pain points and are uniquely positioned to serve them versus adjacent horizontal players.
Working with growth-stage companies, James provides unwavering support to founders as they navigate the most critical decisions that lie ahead through all phases of a company’s trajectory.
James graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Outside of Spark, he enjoys jazz music and is an aspiring bogey golfer.
As a child, James spent time in the theater world. He starred as Gavroche in the Broadway production and National Tour of Les Miserables.
“To me, entrepreneurship is one of the noblest endeavors someone can undertake. I view my job as doing anything that can help founders achieve their goals. That's intros, recruiting, thinking about fundraising, M&A, and generally being available and accessible at any time.”
“I love digging into the data, but that’s only one part of the story. The customer’s love for a particular product brings the holistic picture of the company to life.”