If you want to be an entrepreneur, understand that you’ll have to be part of a team if you’re going to be successful. This, according to Geoff Entress, ’98, a Seattle-based investor who has backed more than 125 companies in the past 15 years.
More advice from Entress: Be comfortable with risk. Be visionary. Don’t be a jerk. And go to law school.
In the pages that follow, read about Entress and his ventures; a new product that helps people who have been charged with minor offenses interact with courts online, which was created by a Law School professor and one of his former students; and a recent alumna’s new line of clothing.
You’ll even read about some alumni who knew, more than a century ago, that going to Michigan Law was a wise means of ingress into the world of entrepreneurship.
Oh, and their company remains in business today. How’s that for visionary?
Transforming What It Means to “Go to Court”
What if your day in court didn’t have to be in court? That’s the idea that led Michigan Law Professor J.J. Prescott and Ben Gubernick, ’11, his former student, to invent a first-of-its-kind technology that helps people who have been charged with minor offenses interact with courts online, at any time of day, without needing to hire an attorney.
The software provides a way for litigants with issues ranging from unpaid fines to minor criminal or civil infractions, including traffic tickets, to communicate directly with judges and prosecutors to find mutually agreeable ways to resolve their cases.
Good Fortune: An Angel Investor Helps Entrepreneurs Soar
“The team, the team, the team.” The famous words of legendary U-M football coach Bo Schembechler are inspirational not just in the arena of sports but also in the world of entrepreneurship.
“An entrepreneur can’t do everything themselves, so they need a team around them,” says Geoff Entress, ’98, a Seattle-based investor who has backed more than 125 companies in the last 15 years, including keyboard technology company Swype, casual game developer Big Fish Games, social media manager HootSuite, and many, many more. “If you can show that you’ve convinced other great people to come with you, you can convince investors.”
Lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Starts Luxe Loungewear Line
Jamie Loeks Duffield, ’12, has always enjoyed fashion, but she never entertained the idea of starting her own clothing line until a Christmas Eve shopping trip left her empty handed.
Duffield and her mother, Barrie Lawson Loeks, ’79, were looking for stylish pajamas to give as gifts to family members, ones that could be worn long after the holidays were over. Instead they were disappointed to find mostly flannel PJs adorned with candy canes or other kitschy motifs.
A Page in Michigan Law History: Printing Course Packs, One Mimeograph at a Time
While the Computer Age has produced countless companies whose origins can be traced to their founders’ dorm rooms, college-age ingenuity didn’t begin with Facebook, Google, or Microsoft.
For Ann Arbor-based book printer and manufacturer Edwards Brothers Malloy, it started with the mimeograph. (Readers born after 1970 should think of the mimeograph as the great-grandfather of the photocopier.)
