James Stovall’s “open door” mindset helped engineer successful start-up exit

In this episode, Ian and Nique are joined by James Stovall, the co-founder and former CEO of Little Bird HR. James founded Little Bird in 2016 to provide software, employee benefits, and HR support to New York City charter schools. After five years of empowering charter schools in the city, Little Bird was bought in 2020 by one of the largest firms in the industry. Essential to James Stovall’s decision to found Little Bird: a desire to leverage his experience working in the charter school sector to pursue his long-term dream of building a company that could address root problems he had observed in education.

One crucial part of James’ early story: witnessing his mother exemplify a remarkable spirit of grit and resiliency as she rejected welfare benefits available to a single mother like her and got a job as an insurance agent to build a better future for her children. Later, James discusses the importance of overcoming prevalent racial narratives that instill feelings of helplessness and undermine personal agency. James has done so by fixing his mind on the open doors in front of him, and not the closed doors — keeping a steady focus on his own goals and the opportunities within his reach rather than ruminating over the barriers that stand in his way. Tune into the full episode to hear more about James’ story and his words of advice for “Darryl.”

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