Equity for Everyone: Latimer AI
What happens when a father watches his son absorb a machine’s version of history, one that erases Black and Brown humanity?
Through research and interviews with Latimer AI founder John Pasmore, I uncovered the positioning opportunity the market hadn’t highlighted: this wasn’t about building “better AI.” It was about refusing to let billion-dollar tech companies rewrite history for the next generation.
About The Company
Latimer AI is an ethical AI platform founded in 2023 by serial entrepreneur John Pasmore. Named after inventor Lewis Latimer, the platform accesses multiple large language models powered by its own curated database:all designed to reduce harmful and inaccurate responses about and for Black and Brown people.
The company serves students, educators, businesses, and institutions through web-based applications and API integration. Within two years, Latimer expanded from individual users to HBCUs, educational institutions, and enterprise clients seeking culturally fluent, accurate AI responses.
But the positioning challenge was this: How do you compete with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic when they have billions in funding, millions of users, and the same bias problem you’re solving, but won’t fix it?
The Catalyst I Uncovered
While researching Latimer AI for a journalism piece, I discovered what the market hadn’t surfaced: John Pasmore’s catalyst moment.
He watched his 16-year-old son interact with AI that was racist and biased. On Twitter and X, people laughed at the outputs. The leaders in AI? Silent.
For Pasmore, serial entrepreneur, Columbia CS grad, father, this was his son. This was also every Black and Brown child who would grow up thinking the machine’s truth was the only truth.
“That was the moment I knew I had to build something different.”
How does a founder competing against billion-dollar incumbents make people feel those stakes?
The Positioning Opportunity
Most AI companies lead with technical specs: faster models, more parameters, better performance. But Latimer had the same challenge every ethical tech company faces—how do you differentiate when the big players could fix the problem but won’t?
The answer wasn’t in what Pasmore built. It was in what he felt.
The emotional through line I identified:
Lived experience: A father sees the existential threat to how his child understands himself and his history
Market insight: Big players know about the bias. They have the resources to fix it. But fixing it isn’t the priority.
The silence: While competitors raced for efficiency and scale, no one was competing on accuracy, empathy, and cultural preservation
Value proposition: Not “better AI”— a historical corrective that refuses to let machines erase humanity
Behavior change: Students learn to interrogate AI outputs instead of accepting them as neutral truth
This became differentiation: While competitors competed on efficiency, Latimer competed on making curiosity a muscle again. Most importantly, I recognized what others missed: Latimer’s success wouldn’t come from out-funding OpenAI. It would come from leading with what only Pasmore could offer—the emotional reality of what’s at stake when AI gets it wrong.
“I WANT THEM TO ASK BETTER QUESTIONS. THE POINT IS TO MAKE CURIOSITY A MUSCLE AGAIN.”
Why This Positioning Works
Taking my Empathy-as-Strategy™ approach, I mapped how Latimer’s lived experience became market positioning:
The emotional pattern I identified:
What Pasmore felt (rage at watching his son absorb biased AI) connected directly to what his audience felt (the gap between sterile AI responses and lived reality). This wasn’t just founder authenticity. It was strategic differentiation the incumbents couldn’t replicate.
The positioning shift:
From “we have better models” to “we’re the response to an industry that chose silence.” This gave Latimer moral authority and reframed the conversation from technical performance to ethical responsibility.
The market opportunity:
While big players focused on the customers they already had, Latimer built for the audience they overlooked: HBCUs, educators teaching Black and Brown students, enterprises needing authentic voice, and families who felt the gap in what AI said about their own history.
When positioning is rooted in lived experience:
You don’t compete on the incumbents’ terms
You attract the audience they overlook
You create a category they won’t build
Your founder story becomes your competitive advantage
Most founders know their “why.” But they don’t know how to translate that lived experience into positioning that drives adoption and revenue.
They lead with features when they should lead with feeling. They compete on specs when they should compete on stakes. They try to convince people they have a problem when they should give people language for what they’re already feeling.
