James McGillicuddy is the CEO and Co-founder of BRM (Buyer Relationship Management), a San Francisco-based AI-powered vendor management and procurement automation platform. After key early roles at RelateIQ (acquired by Salesforce for $390M), Sourcegraph (valued at $2.6B), and Carta (where he led CartaX), McGillicuddy co-founded BRM in May 2022 to rebalance the power dynamic between buyers and their vendors. BRM raised $21.6M in total funding - a $6M seed from Base10 Partners and a $15M Series A led by Caffeinated Capital in December 2024 - and serves customers including Deel and Cadence with AI SuperAgents that automate vendor discovery, contract extraction, compliance monitoring, and negotiation.
Adeyemi 'Ade' Ajao is a Nigerian-Spanish serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist who co-founded Base10 Partners, the first Black-led VC firm to surpass $1 billion in AUM. Before building Base10, he sold Tuenti (Spain's dominant social network) to Telefónica for ~$100M and co-founded Identified, acquired by Workday. In 2023, he became the first Black investor ever named to the Forbes Midas List, and his fund's portfolio includes Nubank, Figma, Instacart, and Rappi. His contrarian bet on automating the 'Real Economy' — logistics, food, healthcare, retail — has generated over $3 billion in portfolio returns.