Daren Hawthorne is a serial entrepreneur, attorney, and business strategist whose career has centered on building, scaling, and systemizing companies across multiple industries.

During his tenure with Golden Krust Caribbean Restaurants, Daren helped scale the organization from approximately $10 million to more than $200 million in annual revenue and oversaw more than $1 billion in systemwide sales. He later expanded that experience through franchising, professional services, hospitality, tax, legal, real estate, and other ventures — giving him a firsthand view of what changes as companies grow and where weak infrastructure begins to create friction.

Across those ventures, his focus has remained consistent: stronger systems, clearer accountability, better visibility, less owner dependency, and businesses designed to scale without becoming harder to manage.

An Emmy-nominated speaker featured on Hulu and Amazon Prime, Daren is also a law school valedictorian and recipient of the Chancellor's Leadership Award. He brings both academic rigor and real-world operating experience to Scale90 — combining legal, financial, operational, and entrepreneurial thinking to shape its strategy and approach to growth.

Jae Sims is an entrepreneur, operator, and business builder with more than 15 years of experience across sales, operations, leadership, AI, automation, and business systems.

He began his entrepreneurial journey as an F45 Training franchisee, where he built, scaled, and successfully exited his location. He later founded a consulting company focused on helping small businesses strengthen their operations, improve sales systems, and build franchise-like processes, contributing to more than $15 million in client revenue across fitness, retail, beauty, and other industries.

As Chief Operating Officer of Black Box Franchising, Jae has helped guide more than 40 emerging franchisors into the marketplace while leading operations, sales execution, client experience, systems, and franchise development.

As Co-Founder and COO of Scale90, Jae leads sales, operations, and client implementation. His focus is building the systems, processes, and execution discipline that help businesses convert more opportunities, operate more efficiently, and scale with greater consistency.

Derrick Gamble is Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Scale90, with more than 15 years of experience across marketing, business operations, sales, retail management, team development, and organizational growth.

A Rutgers University alumnus, Derrick built much of his leadership experience managing high-volume, multimillion-dollar retail operations for nationally recognized brands. His work has included opening new locations, building teams, driving revenue, improving sales performance, strengthening customer experience, and executing marketing and growth strategies.

At Scale90, Derrick leads brand, marketing, public relations, content, customer acquisition, and the Scale90 Network. He brings a marketer's creativity and an operator's discipline to how the company grows, communicates, and builds lasting relationships.

Beyond business, Derrick is deeply committed to leadership and community development. He serves as President of the Highland Park Athletic Teams Boosters and Director of Prodigy Hoops NJ, where he helps develop young athletes both on and off the court.