Elevating Opportunity
“My name is James Bance, and I do a lot of things.” That may be the understatement of the year. So what are those things, exactly? We sat down with James at @ransomboone for Silicon Hollar’s Pop-Up Coworking event to discuss his professional background and his visions for the growth and development of Boone.
Why not start at the beginning? @bancejames was born and raised in a small town in Wisconsin named Baraboo. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, leaving after three years to launch a startup in Silicon Valley with friends. Unfortunately, their company dissolved after 18 months. “You got to fail in life to learn. I did that young, so it was a low risk proposition for me.”
James met his wife while in California and they moved to Austin, Texas together, where James worked in finance for ten years for businesses like Merrill Lynch and @johnhancockusa. It was around 2010 that he jumped back into the technology world and has been doing sales and marketing for startup tech companies ever since. After moving to Boone seven years ago, James came across a grad student paper about poverty in Watauga County, where the most recent US Census data shows that 20.5% of residents live below the poverty line. “I had no idea how many people were living below what is considered the poverty line. It’s high.” James said. “That, to me, was an eye opener. From what I saw, people seemed to be living okay. You forget about that there’s a whole group of people who may be struggling. So I wanted to work on job creation and figure out how I can contribute.”
So when he met @samlglover who had the same dreams for this community, they got together to figure out how to foster more professional high paying jobs up here. This was the conception of Silicon Hollar. Three and a half years later, this dream has transformed into @startup_highcountry, Velocity Labs, and the High Country Impact Fund. “We get people the training they need and want, find avenues for that, and take the entrepreneurs who already have ideas and help them,” James explained. “If we can support them in that way, we help everybody else to learn a little bit more and bring them all together at the Silicon Hollar.”
In addition to spearheading all aspects of the Silicon Hollar, James continues to work remotely for a cloud based software company in Texas and serves on the committee for the Boone / Blowing Rock - Watauga County Economic Development.
He emphasized the importance of connecting with the college student population here in town. “I think as a business community we really haven’t played that up enough. So part of our charge at the EDC right now is to really emphasize the connection with Appalachian State University and the business community. We are trying to pave those roads,” he said. “Citizens here need to be more proactive about reaching out to college students. That hits home with the entrepreneurial stuff. The students have this energy level, and this creativity and curiosity level that helps feed a lot of the entrepreneurs that are trying to do things here. Whether it’s to grow a big business, or maintain a lifestyle business, that student energy and creativity can really be helpful. So we’re trying to facilitate those interactions with Silicon Hollar.”
All told, James Bance is a marketing director for Lean DNA in Austin, Texas (he travels there once every six weeks!), a founding member of Start Up High Country along with Jeffrey Scott, Madelyn Hjertmann, Chris Grasinger, and Sam Glover, and an active member of the Economic Development Commission for Watauga County. The drive and passion James has for the professional community of Boone is unmatched. So we want to thank you James, for being a leader of our locality and this week’s #InstaBoonies.