Preston L. James II

Co-Founder + CEO, DivInc

Austin

Preston is the Co-Founder/CEO of DivInc, which is the first early stage tech startup accelerator in Texas exclusively for people of color and women tech entrepreneurs. Founded in 2016, DivInc has helped launch 63 companies. They are expanding in Houston this year with other cities on the roadmap which will enable them to launch hundreds of startup companies per year. In the summer of 2020, in response to George Floyd’s murder and COVID-19 racial disparities , DivInc launched their Social Justice Innovation Program. In addition, DivInc has a women of color entrepreneur initiative, Startup Sistas, that serves 300+ women per year across Texas.

A former 20-year veteran at Dell, he served in executive leadership roles in Enterprise IT Sales and Consulting where he led teams

responsible for driving $250M+ in revenues. He also served as the Managing Director for the Dell Global Center for Entrepreneurship, where he supervised the $100M Dell Credit Fund and helped expand the center’s initiatives globally.

He also served a two-year appointment as the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.

Preston is a champion for transforming and mobilizing the tech ecosystem to be authentically inclusive. Through DivInc, he removes barriers for founders by providing direct access to the essential resources needed to build high growth innovation businesses. He firmly believes that the future prosperity of our nation is directly tied to our ability to empower women and people of color through entrepreneurship and innovation. It’s an economic imperative!!!

Preston earned his Bachelor’s of Science and Engineering degree at Howard University, in Washington, DC. A proud native New Yorker, Preston has lived in Austin since 1997 with his wonderful wife Kim and their four children, Sydney (20), Cori (17), Presli (14) and Preston, III (11).