James Varga
I help leadership teams put AI to work.
- AI Operating Partner. Embedded, not advisory.
- For CEOs of businesses with 50 to 250 people.
- Thirty years an operator. I still build.
AI Operating Partner, the full offer
About
- 30+ years operating and still building. Canadian in Edinburgh since the '90s. Dyslexic and neurodivergent — a fact, and an advantage. It's why I think from first principles, read patterns laterally, and speak the same cognitive language as other founders. Three decades operating across fintech, open banking, climate, identity, and AI.
- AI Operating Partner. And four lighter ways. Most of my time now goes to one thing. The rest is a small number of roles each year.
- What I'm working on right now. Same cognition, different problems. I come at hard things from first principles, look for the pattern hiding in plain sight, and help founders build the systems that turn new categories into businesses.
- Edinburgh, in transit, and the occasional stage. Snapshots from stages, studios, and Scotland. Click any to enlarge.
- Making Scotland punch its weight. The talent and the ideas are here. The alignment isn't. I put time into the ecosystem because a rising tide genuinely does lift all the boats — and because the best founders I know are one introduction away from each other. Programmes, panels, mentorship, angel introductions.
- First conversations, not calendar invites.
Companies
- Someone who has sat in your chair. I've spent 30 years founding and running businesses, seven of them my own, so I know what it's like in your seat when the plan isn't working. These days I run my own businesses on AI. I join your leadership team and help you do the same, hands-on.
- somai, a company I co-founded. An AI-native delivery studio for larger organisations, where I'm a founding partner. It runs separately from my own AI Operating Partner work, and I'll always tell you where my interest lies. somai.studio · /companies/somai
- Scottish craft gin, built on exploration. We bring our love of the outdoors into the bottle. We build gins as limited-edition adventures, each one rooted in a place, a route, or a moment that made us stop and pay attention. We start with the story, then choose botanicals that earn their place, so the flavour is bold, and made to be shared. wildfiregin.com · /companies/wildfire-gin
- A GTM system for B2B founders in regulated markets. A three-phase system — design, enable, run — for seed-to-Series-A teams stuck in long sales cycles, low conversion, or unpredictable forecasts. Embedded, not advisory. closingfoundry.com · /companies/closing-foundry
- The world's first market for Green Hydrogen Certificates. A registry and marketplace letting shipping companies, fuel producers, and cargo owners trade the environmental attributes of green hydrogen independently from the physical fuel. h2c.org · /companies/h2c
- Different industries. Same cognition. First principles, pattern-matching, operator depth. Different industries, different problems, one way of seeing them.
Projects
- What I make outside the companies. Simon Sinek calls it the infinite mindset — borrowing from James Carse's Finite and Infinite Games (1986). Finite players play to win. Infinite players play to keep the game going, and to bring others into it. Three decades in, I know which one I am.
- Growing Scotland's business ecosystem. Building Scotland is dedicated to growing and strengthening Scotland's business ecosystem. We connect entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators to build a thriving community. buildingscotland.substack.com · buildingscotland.net
- How fintech actually gets built, bought, and scaled. Six episodes for founders in regulated markets — covering the operating system, positioning, product, messaging, distribution, and enterprise sales. Plus a companion GPT. fintechscotland.com
- SMEs powering the UK's AI economy. A UK not-for-profit community for SMEs and service providers working with AI. Advocates SME voices in policy, publishes white papers, and connects members for practical adoption. businessaialliance.org
- Plan your next adventure with confidence. A free, activity-specific weather tool. Scores every hour for hill walking, sea kayaking, fishing, or wild camping — the Good Time Score tells you when to head out. wildcast.wildfiregin.com