James Griffin

CEO, Invene

BS’18 Computer Science

  • CEO and founder of Invene – a healthcare software development company that creates and designs innovative solutions and products for its clients.
  • Featured in D Magazine, Dallas Morning News, Dallas Business Journal, North Texas Inno (NTX Inno), and Community Impact.
  • OZY Genius Award Winner, recognized by North Texas Inno as ’25 Under 25,’ Forbes Next 1000
  • Received a grant from McKinney Economic Development Corporation’s (MEDC) Innovation Fund.

What problem(s) did you set out trying to solve? 

While at UTD, I was trying to fix bad college advising that often lead to students graduating late with lots of debt. As such, I created an artificial intelligence system for degree planning to help students. I eventually abandoned that company to focus my efforts on helping high-growth healthcare technology companies build software.

When did you realize you were working on something with business potential? In other words, at what point did you know this was something you wanted to focus a lot of your time and energy on? 

While running both companies simultaneously, my product company never made a cent while my consulting firm generated revenue. Eventually, I came to the obvious realization that I couldn’t keep splitting my time between the two as they would both flounder. I ended up closing down my product-based company to go all-in with consulting. At the time it was incredibly heart-wreaking, but it was easily the best decision of my life.

Describe your startup experience in three words. 

Cash is King.

What resources at the university did you take advantage of and how did they help you on your entrepreneurial journey? 

Venture Development Center (VDC) — My first initial office (before I got a grant to relocate to McKinney). Through my relationship with Jon Shapiro (former director), I got my first ever consulting client there. I also ended up recruiting my COO there from a fellow company once they exited.

Blackstone LaunchPad: I often hung out around Blackstone LaunchPad to build my initial network into the DFW entrepreneurship ecosystem. Even though we’re fully bootstrapped, if I wanted to raise money, I have a lot of great relationships with local VCs and angel investors from my time at UTD.

UTDesign Startup Challenge: I did two senior computer science capstone design projects. Even though my product company didn’t work out, I ended up hiring 3 UTD students from the experience to join my consulting company who are core to our business.

CometX Accelerator: The past instructor, Shaz Amin, is awesome and we’re still friends to this day. Highly connected across the US and helped me out with a couple of intros.

Startup Launch – The instructor, Bob Wright, gave me a couple of introductions. My business is all about relationships and trust, so that’s why it’s what I remember most from my UTD days (not to mention I track it all in my CRM!).

What insight would you give to a student trying to launch a startup while in college? 

Focus on something that can generate revenue. If it doesn’t make money, it’s probably not “real”. Once you find something that makes money, then you can revise and make it better. You’re an entrepreneur until you start making money. Don’t solve college kid problems. Solve problems of CEOs as they have money. Unless it’s another social media app, it probably isn’t going to work since college kids are broke. Instead of focusing on pitch competitions, actually build a real business. If you do, you’ll win all the pitch competitions regardless. It’s hard for a judge to argue against revenue when the competitors don’t have any.

What advice do you have for students about using their time, relationships, and opportunities at UTD to prepare for this kind of journey? 

UTD has a lot of great resources available if you’re willing to invest time into them. The key is putting yourself out there and getting involved. You don’t want to go through college stuck in your dorm room all day and watching Netflix. You need to form strong relationships with professors, fellow students, and alumni. You’ll probably never get another opportunity like this again. You have lots of time at college — it’s up to you to use it wisely.

Has anyone in the UTD network been important to your journey? Why? 

Lots. Here are a few that immediately popped to mind.

Jon Shapiro — Helped me get the first customer for Invene (Vigilant Labels) and another later customer of Invene (Wello).

Dr. Peter Baek, MD — Founder of Vigilant Labels, the first customer of Invene, and MS graduate from UTD.

Rod Wetterskog & Dr. Lawrence Redlinger — Advocated for me to have 2 senior UTDesign projects that I recruited 3 UTD students from (Jonathan Sayre, Sam Bajwa, Mei Tan) to join Invene.

Brian Hoang — Awesome friend from UTD and is an inspiration for me.

Ted Lindsley — We met while officing out of the Venture Development Center at UTD. I recruited him as our COO once he sold his company which took my company, Invene, to the next level. He was a unicorn hire for my company.

Bryan Chambers — Introduction to the Capital Factory ecosystem.

Dr. Gopal Gupta — Great advice during my college years.

Bob Wright — Startup Launch teacher, always willing to give me intros.

Chris Bhatti – Given me some awesome industry intros.

There are tons of others! Before UTD, I had a very small network. But after it, it was much larger, and it continues to reap rewards. If I see a fellow alum that’s from UTD, it’s incredibly easy to connect with them. 

What advice do you have for students who want to pursue a venture in your industry? 

We build custom software for fast-growing healthcare technology companies. This means we’re fundamentally a consulting company. The most important thing is to focus on your niche. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, it’s to do one thing well and eventually better than everything else.

Don’t be a general-purpose services firm, focus on one thing. Trust me on this — almost every CEO you talk to in the consulting space will wish they had specialized instead of being a generalist. By being specialized you will grow faster, attract better talent, and have higher margins.

What’s one thing you know now (regarding entrepreneurship) that you wish you knew in college? 

It’s okay to have a services firm. During college, I had product envy. I wanted to have headlines written about me. I wanted everyone to know I had a Unicorn and was going to be a billionaire. I thought the only real businesses were software-as-a-service companies with recurring revenue. I eventually realized there are multiple paths to entrepreneurship.

I’m incredibly happy my college dreams didn’t succeed. Owning a fully-bootstrapped, cash-flow-positive business is very fun and fulfilling! I’m in complete control of my destiny and the sky is the limit.

What’s next for you/your company? 

For Invene — keep on growing! In the next 12 to 15 years, we’ll be the best custom software development firm for healthcare in the world. For me personally? Continue the grind. Gotta put in the effort to reap the rewards! Maybe eventually I’ll be an angel investor — we’ll see.