UpRise Masterclass
Our next UpRise Masterclass is lunch and conversation with Clarence Wooten.
Join Clarence Wooten and Jamie McDonald, CEO of UpSurge, for a fireside chat and AMA (ask me anything). Ask all of your questions about being a founder, building in Baltimore, raising money, exits and failures, working on moonshots, and how AI is going to change entrepreneurship.
Clarence Wooten is a serial entrepreneur now working as an Entrepreneur In Residence at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory (formerly Google X) where he directs teams to create radical new technologies to solve some of the world’s hardest problems. Clarence is west Baltimore born and raised, and the only black founder to have founded, scaled, and led two Internet startups to successful acquisitions by publicly traded companies.
Lunch will be served and space is limited.
Learn more about Clarence
Clarence Wooten is a serial tech entrepreneur presently working as Entrepreneur in Residence at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory (formerly known as Google X) where he directs talented teams to create radical new technologies to solve some of the World’s hardest problems.
Clarence is the only African-American to have founded, scaled, and led two Internet startups to successful acquisitions by publicly traded companies while CEO with the sale of ImageCafe to Network Solutions [Nasdaq: NSOL] and Progressly to Box [NYSE: BOX]. Upon founding Progressly, Clarence foresaw the consumerization of enterprise software and created a patented cloud-based workflow UI/UX for business processes that led to the company’s acquisition by Box in 2018.
In his current role at X, Clarence leverages his design-thinking roots, deep understanding of tech, and entrepreneurial experience to develop moonshots in X’s early pipeline. Clarence is also General Partner at Revitalize, a venture studio and seed fund focused on changing the complexion of tech and increasing economic opportunities though Web3.
With a track-record of applying superior UI/UX, SaaS, blockchain, and AI to build and transform companies; Clarence leverages these talents as an advisor to Procter & Gamble Ventures, AQI Ventures, Impact Venture Capital and numerous Silicon Valley tech advisory boards, CEOs, and accelerators including Alchemist and Spark Labs. Clarence is an autodidact with a unique and deep network ranging from founders and CEOs of disruptive tech startups, to venture capitalists, celebrities and executives at Silicon Valley’s leading companies.
Clarence graduated magna cum laude with degrees in Business Management from Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School and Computer-Aided Design for Architecture & Engineering from the CC of Baltimore County. In 2016 Clarence was inducted into the National Community College Hall of Fame. In 2010 Clarence was named a distinguished alumnus of Johns Hopkins and in 2006 Clarence was named an honorary alumnus of the Univ. of Maryland. Clarence is the subject of a Babson College Case Study, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and CNNfn. Clarence is a 2011 TechCrunch Disrupt finalist and was named Top 10 Blacks in Technology in 2012 by Blacks In Tech [BIT].
Clarence is a former member of the board of trustees of Philadelphia University, one of the nation’s top design schools, and the proud father of two daughters.