Our
Team

For black founders by black founders

In 2020, Sean Green and James Norman put their heads together with guidance from their mentor Joanne Wilson to build a venture fund in the light of their own experiences as Black founders. From there, they reached out to their network to game plan. Through a series of conversations with their peers and other leaders in the venture space, a strategy was developed to address the largest problem in the market for top Black founders, the Series A funding gap. Putting all the pieces in place to properly accelerate the brightest minds in our community, Black Operator Ventures was built. At Black Ops, we intend to be the launching pad for the most multi-billion dollar valued tech companies led by Black founders.

In 2024, Black Ops is a $25M fund focused on leading seed rounds of the top Black founders in the US. Backed by legendary investors including Ben Horowitz, Fred Wilson and Brad Feld; legendary founders including Drew Houston, Mike Seibel and Jake Gibson; and world renowned institutions including University of Michigan, Northwestern Mutual and Bank of America, we are building a firm that will fundamentally change the venture landscape.

To learn more about our world view, please take a look at Transparent Collective, Harvard Business Review’s guide to investing in Black founders and our medium blog.