Jim Barnish, Jr.

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

# Design Thinking
# Launches & GTM
# Mergers & Acquisitions
# P.E. / V.C. Equity
# RevOps
# Startups
# Strategy

Background:

I am a strategic change leader with over 15 years of leadership experience in global and integrated operations, M&A, and strategic go-to-market planning. Drawing on deep operational and investment experience at startup and scale-up businesses, I have created and curated a collection of proven, data-driven processes and methodologies to help companies build scalable and fundable VC ready solutions—accelerating organic growth.

*Racemi: Chief of Staff (COO) - Led the turnaround, growth and exit of a Series B cloud migration company (See Abstract)

McKinsey, Tribridge, GES (Gulfeagle Supply), Supervalu: M&A Strategy - 15+ years M&A experience, acquiring and integrating 30+ companies ranging from $2-$250M
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‍*TradeSmith: Consultant - Guided a fintech company to a $36M exit - 55 percent valuation increase in seven months (See Abstract)
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*Florida Funders: Partner & Director of Investments - Structured investment engine, now the most active VC in Florida (See Abstract)

Education: University of Wisconsin-Madison - B.A., Business Administration & Management; University of Missouri - B.A., Strategic Communications & Journalism - Advertisement; University of South Florida - MBA, University of South Florida - M.S., Management - Entrepreneurship & Sustainability

Industries

# AI & ML

# Big Data

# Cloud Computing

# ERP / CRM

# FinOps

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# FinTech

# Gaming

# Retail / CPG

# SaaS Development

# Social Media

- Tampa Bay: 40 Under 40

- Supervalu: Employee of the Year

- Board Advisor: USF, Synapse, Blockspaces, TSO Life

‍- Certified Agile Leader & Scrum Master: Scrum Alliance‍

- Chapter Adviser & Alumnus: Beta Theta Pi‍

- Alumnus: Delta Sigma Pi

- Member: Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)

Articles & Case Studies

5 Lessons I Learned When I Created My App or SAAS

The Founder’s Guide to Scaling Your Personal Life

Now is the time to Retain Tomorrow’s Workers

CEO/CMO Dynamic

Kool-Aid vs. Water: Secrets to Leadership

“Fail seven times. Get up eight.”

—Dwayne Wade, former American professional basketball player

What I'm Reading / Listening To:

Comment:

This book simplifies many of the concepts leveraged in the foundation of Orchid Black's design thinking mentality working with growth stage businesses. Another great one is the Startup Equation by Steve Fisher.

Still On My Bucket List:

Hang glide in New Zealand.

Best Business Advice:

Success in business is more about your mentality and determination than it is about finding little hacks and exploitations in the marketplace.