James

Since leaving EQL, I've been deliberately seeking work that makes a meaningful contribution to the world, not just another strong commercial outcome.

When Renaud, a close friend and someone I deeply respect, came to me with a problem he wanted help solving, one that affects millions of scientists globally, it immediately resonated. As we explored it further, it became clear this was a space ripe for change, with the potential for impact to compound over time.

That's the kind of work I want to be doing. Work where commercial success and positive impact reinforce each other, and where progress helps smart, motivated people move faster on problems that matter.

Bower gives me the opportunity to apply everything I've learned about building, selling, and scaling companies to a problem space that genuinely improves how the world works. It's also a chance to build an ambitious, world-class technology company with an exceptional team, who are all at similar life stages, and to prove that meaningful companies can be built outside major cities.

I'm a builder who sells.

I was a Co-Founder at VC-backed commerce platform EQL, and helped take the business from $0 to $3.5M in ARR, owning revenue end to end and wearing every hat along the way: seller, customer support, customer success, revenue operations, sales manager, and ultimately Chief Revenue Officer. That experience shaped how I operate: close to customers, close to data, and accountable for outcomes.

I bring a generalist background across sales, marketing, product, and go-to-market, which allows me to work effectively across functions and turn insight into execution. I'm comfortable taking early-stage products to market, selling them directly, learning from every conversation, and feeding that intelligence back into the business to improve what we build.

As a father of three amazing children, I'm motivated to spend my time on work that matters. That perspective shapes how I choose problems, how I lead teams, and the kind of companies I want to help build: ones that are ambitious, grounded, and focused on creating long-term value rather than short-term wins.

As Founder and CRO at EQL, I built the initial sales motion from scratch, selling into brands, partners, and rights-holders before the platform was fully formed, hiring and scaling the revenue team, and owning outcomes through growth. Speed mattered more than polish, and learning from customers shaped everything that followed.

Alongside my commercial role as a founder, I was deeply involved in shaping the business itself, contributing to company strategy, organisational design, and key decisions as we scaled. I worked closely with the founding team (CEO and CTO) through multiple stages of growth, helping navigate trade-offs between speed, focus, and long-term value creation. Through successive venture capital raises, I gained firsthand experience of the VC ecosystem and what it means to operate as a VC-backed company, from fundraising and board engagement through to setting expectations around growth, governance, and accountability. That experience continues to inform how I build, operate, and scale businesses today.

Prior to EQL I held senior commercial roles at Google, working at the intersection of product, sales, and go-to-market on some of the company's most commercially and reputationally important initiatives. I led the ANZ go-to-market for Performance Video from beta through to general availability, taking the product from $0 to $2M. I also led YouTube Brand Safety efforts during a period of heightened scrutiny, working across PR, corporate communications, and sales to rebuild advertiser trust and stabilise key relationships. Before that, I was a senior salesperson for Google in the retail vertical, managing $8 to 10M in annual advertising revenue across some of Australia's largest retailers, consistently exceeding quota through trusted C-level relationships and increased share of media spend.

Across every role, the pattern has been consistent. I dive in myself, document what works, and turn wins into repeatable systems. I hire people who can learn and adapt, not just execute playbooks, and I create clear ownership and accountability so teams can scale with confidence. I care deeply about culture, but I'm practical about performance.

I excel at selling products that are early in their lifecycle, closing early customers in ambiguous environments, and building teams that can carry the work forward. Bower is the most meaningful version of that journey because the stakes are real, and the impact compounds.

As COO / CRO, my role is to turn a great product into a great business by building the operating foundation that allows Bower to scale.

I own our go-to-market execution end to end, from defining early sales motions and pricing to closing initial customers and shaping onboarding and customer success. Alongside revenue, I'm responsible for the systems, processes, and cadence that sit underneath growth, including forecasting, pipeline management, and cross-functional alignment.

I work closely with product and engineering to ensure market feedback is translated into clear priorities and that what we ship supports real customer workflows and buying decisions.

In an early-stage company, that also means doing whatever needs doing. I regularly step into customer support, sales calls, marketing, onboarding, and problem-solving wherever the business needs momentum. My focus is less on title and more on ownership.

As we grow, I'll be responsible for building and leading the revenue organisation while establishing the broader operating rhythm of the company, including planning cycles, ownership, and accountability across teams. Ultimately, my job is to make growth repeatable, disciplined, and sustainable, so Bower can scale successfully and deliver on the impact we're aiming to have.