James Berlin

I build things.

Engineering, software, manufacturing, businesses — and occasionally race cars.

I like taking complicated ideas through the uncomfortable space between concept and something that actually works.

What I'm building Talk to me

What I'm building

Companies, products, and machines.

Some are software. Some are physical products. Some involve considerably more tire wear than others.

NextRev Motorsports

Engineering & manufacturing

Engineering things that have to work in the real world.

NextRev is an engineering and manufacturing company focused on turning ideas into physical products. Mechanical design, simulation, additive manufacturing, composites, fabrication, tooling, and production all live under one roof.

We work on everything from industrial hardware to race cars — usually where solving the problem requires more than handing off a CAD file.

Visit NextRev

PhotoNextRev work in progress — composite layup, tooling, or a printer bed mid-build.

Novum Autoworks

Vehicle development

PhotoNovum vehicle — the car itself, in the shop or on course at Pikes Peak.

Building the cars we'd rather exist.

Novum is our vehicle development company.

We design, build, test, and prove complete vehicles and performance products — using motorsports as both a development environment and a fairly unforgiving engineering review.

Our first vehicle program took us all the way to Pikes Peak.

Visit Novum

sEquip

Software

Software built from inside the paddock.

sEquip is a motorsports operations platform built around how race teams actually work.

Scheduling, preparation, setup, debriefs, inventory, race operations, and AI assistance come together in one system designed to reduce the mental overhead of running a race car.

The goal is simple: spend less time managing information and more time racing.

Visit sEquip

PhotoPaddock operations — timing screens, pit board, or a team working between sessions.

About

Engineer by training. Product builder by habit.

My career has moved through engineering, additive manufacturing, software, product strategy, commercialization, and customer experience.

I've spent much of it working on the problem that sits between having good technology and getting people to actually use it.

Outside of that career, I build companies and products of my own — which has meant everything from writing software to designing composite aero, developing manufacturing processes, running CFD, building cars, and figuring out how to sell the resulting thing.

The common thread is pretty simple:

I like making complicated things real.

Motorsports

Engineering has a stopwatch.

Motorsports has been a constant thread through almost everything I do.

I race, build cars, develop aero, work with teams, and spend an unreasonable amount of time trying to understand why something gained or lost two tenths.

It's also one of the best engineering environments I know. Ideas become parts. Parts go on cars. Cars produce data. And the stopwatch is generally uninterested in your excuses.

PhotoMy own racing — the Formula Mazda on track, at speed.

PhotoMe in the car, or in the paddock between sessions.

PhotoEngineering detail — upright, aero element, or data on a laptop trackside.

Have something interesting?

I'm usually happy to talk about difficult engineering problems, interesting products, racing, software, or ideas that probably shouldn't be as complicated as they've become.

Talk to me