James Birch

Hey Propel team!

I’m James; I’m cofounder of a currently stealth future-of-work startup, and am really excited to be a part of this community and contribute however I can. (I’m also not the only Canadian — hooray!)

I have a background in neuroscience, anthropology, and electrical engineering. I have worked on technological adaptations to climate change, brain cancer research, predicting car accidents with AI, and been a head of data science in healthtech and adtech.

More recently, I was Chief of Staff at the $7B Founders Fund and Softbank-backed Roivant Sciences, and the NASDAQ-traded Axovant Gene Therapies, which I turned around after a Ph3 trial failure (which is how I know Tom Guthrie and Scott Amenta)

Give: - I would love to give others advice on building more effective organizations (especially through technology), navigating organizational challenges, improving hiring processes, and navigating their careers. I’m also happy to talk biotech (though I’m not in the space anymore), and can help you build more inclusive organizations.

Ask: - I would love to learn from others who are also building their own companies, particularly with respect to the challenges they’ve faced.

Fun Fact: I speak four (formerly 5) languages — English, French, Indonesian, and Malay (I did fieldwork in Indonesia + Malaysia), and used to speak some Mandarin. I grew up bilingual (English/French) in Montreal, Quebec, and still forget English words and replace them with French ones in everyday conversation (which is a pretty common Montreal thing!)