Mentorship in Motion: Reflections from a Summer with Our Summer Associates

This summer, I’ve had the privilege of working more closely with the Lathrop GPM class of summer associates as one of the work coordinators. Having experienced a summer program disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic firsthand, I’ve especially appreciated the chance to help this talented group navigate what is, in some ways, a two-month job interview—all while also exploring career paths, learning about different legal practices, locating the printers and bathrooms, and hopefully enjoying a bit of the beautiful Twin Cities summer in between.

Maybe it’s a bit of nostalgic projection for an experience I didn’t fully get to enjoy, but I genuinely hope our summer associates walk away feeling supported during this unique and formative stage of their legal journey. To me, that’s the essence of mentorship.

Lessons from FARMCON: Kevin Van Trump’s Wisdom on Investing in Startups

Last week, I had the privilege of attending FARMCON in Kansas City, MO. Hosted by Kevin Van Trump, FARMCON brings together some of the sharpest minds in agriculture for a few days of networking, learning, and inspiration. For those unfamiliar, FARMCON isn’t your typical conference—it’s half market overview, half start-up incubator and designed to push boundaries and equip agricultural entrepreneurs with tools to thrive in an industry that’s as challenging as it is rewarding.

Kevin Van Trump, who is the man behind The Van Trump Report, is a well-known name that is synonymous with innovation and insight in the ag sector. Kevin started from the bottom of the commodities world in Chicago and built his reputation by not only understanding market trends but by helping others navigate them. Through his report, read in over 35 countries, and his consulting firm, Farm Direction, Kevin has become a trusted voice for farmers, investors, and executives alike. Kevin has an overarching passion for rural America—a passion that shines brightly at FARMCON.

While FARMCON covers a range of topics, Kevin ran a panel that offered insights on investing in startups, and his comments stood out as particularly impactful. His decades of experience investing in ag-tech startups and other ventures have taught him hard-earned lessons, many of which he shared during the conference. Here are my top five takeaways:

Lessons from the Roadside: Embracing Failure in Entrepreneurship

I identify as an entrepreneur - more accurately, a failed entrepreneur - but an entrepreneur, nonetheless. My personal experiences have taught me that failure is not a destination, it’s that strange, potentially intimidating rest stop you may be forced to visit during your entrepreneurial journey through the start-up desert, inching toward the oasis on the other side. Failure is that detour that makes you go “huh…” once its finally in your rearview mirror. In my younger years, I have had the opportunity to stop off at three of these less-than-ideal roadside attractions, each teaching me something new.

Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World (Little, Brown and Company, 2023)

Malcolm Harris lured me into this book, a history of the area now encompassing Silicon Valley, with his very first sentences: “Palo Alto is nice. The weather is temperate; the people educated, rich, healthy, innovative.” Check—this matches my initial impressions, formed when I arrived in 1979 to attend law school on the campus of the university Leland Stanford formed in 1891 in memory of his son, a victim of typhoid at the age of 15.

One detail immediately stood out for me. It was difficult for me, a middle-class son of the Midwest, to come to terms with the fact that the undergraduate parking lot was filled with cars newer and more expensive than those I encountered on a daily basis in the suburban Twin Cities neighborhood of my youth. Nonetheless, I came to see Palo Alto as a wonderful place to spend three years, even if throughout that period I had a nagging feeling that there was something not quite “real,” for lack of a better term, about the place. It turns out this is a feeling I share with Harris, who grew up there. “There were signs,” he writes, “that, if Palo Alto was normal, it was too normal, weirdly normal.” Again, right on target.

Woodstock for Capitalists

Each May, thousands of people flock to Omaha for this event, more prosaically known as the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting. All it takes to attend the party is to be considered a stockholder. A share of the company’s Class A shares (currently trading at about $525,000) might be a little bit beyond the reach of many, but a share of its Class B stock (about $350) will also do the trick.

The event is a true spectacle, offering a 5K run, comedy skits, disco balls, music, celebrities, and even visits by characters from the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio of companies (such as the GEICO gecko).

The Power of Finding your Community on Twitter

What if I told you that a place existed where you could interact with hundreds of entrepreneurs, lawyers, accountants, bankers, investors and more, all from your seat on the couch? In that same place, these people share ideas, tips, and stories from their years of experience. And the best part—you can gain access to this vast base of knowledge at your fingertips, and all for free. That place is Twitter, and no matter what business or industry you’re in, you’ll likely find that there is a Twitter community catering to it.

Will Machine Learning Make Us Less Intelligent?

If you are wondering whether I used AI to write this blog post, the answer is no. This will soon become obvious since no respectable AI program would go off on tangents as much as I do.

Having graded many undergraduate student essays, it is very disheartening to know that students can now ask a computer program to write a full essay for them on just about any topic in a matter of minutes. Will this new machine learning craze fundamentally change the next generation’s ability to do basic, fundamental research and writing?

Is that the Real McCoy?

Counterfeit products are fake goods designed, packaged, and branded to look like the real thing. They were historically of a lesser quality. For many years, the counterfeit market was considered a problem primarily for manufacturers of well-known luxury or high-end consumer goods such as name-brand clothing, shoes, purses, shoes, watches, jewelry, and electronics.

The fake items were sold by street vendors to persons who might not be likely customers for the genuine products, so actual “lost sales” to the brand owner were questionable. In most of these situations, purchasers would have (or should have) a fairly good idea that they were not purchasing a genuine product, so lack of quality would not be a surprise or blamed on the brand owner.

NCAA Athletes May Get an Entrepreneurial Boon

For more than a century, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has sought to protect amateurism in college sports by preventing student athletes from being compensated for or otherwise profiting from their collegiate sports participation. Student athletes have been largely prohibited from receiving any compensation or benefits for playing college sports except for the direct educational benefits associated with the cost of attendance — scholarships, books, room and board, and, more recently, limited stipends for living expenses that could include travel costs. The ability of the NCAA to enforce these rules changed on Monday, June 21, when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that restrictions under consideration in the case constituted an unlawful restraint of trade (Alston vs. NCAA). 

The Alston decision addressed only the NCAA rules limiting the benefits schools can provide to student athletes. What specifically will change as a result of this decision is as yet unknown, but we will likely see some creativity among schools scrambling to enhance offerings to attract top athletes. Examples of previously prohibited benefits that may now be available include paid internships and graduate school scholarships, broader definition of what constitutes living expenses for stipends, and the removal of caps on disability insurance for injured athletes. NCAA rules that were not at issue in this case, but which are the subject of a separate antitrust lawsuit (House vs. NCAA), are the rules prohibiting student athletes from the commercial exploitation of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. 

Every person has NIL rights under legal theories of the “right of privacy” and the “right of publicity.” It is the right of each individual to prevent others from using his/her name, image, or likeness for commercial purposes, and at the same time to profit from his/her own exploitation of such rights. While it seems that every other aspect of the multi-billion dollar college sports industry has been exploited for commercial purposes, the NCAA has adhered to a strict prohibition of the rights of student athletes, even entrepreneurial ones, to profit from their own identities. Years of public pressure on the NCAA to relax its rules on this issue have been unsuccessful in bringing about any meaningful change by the NCAA, and now it may have lost its ability to control the issue. 

Twin Cities Startup “Week” in a Pandemic

Last week marked the beginning of Twin Cities Startup Week 2020, our annual celebration of local startups, founders and everyone who supports the Twin Cities entrepreneurial ecosystem. Usually, attendees can expect a jam-packed week of lunches, happy hours and networking events, interspersed with panel discussions, workshops and other events. This year, of course, is proceeding somewhat differently, with events spread out between September 7 and September 25, and being hosted all online. I guess it’s appropriate that in our COVID-19 universe a week lasts 18 days (at least many weeks feel like they last 18 days).  Get your tickets here!

As always, however, there are far too many events for even the most dedicated scheduler to possibly attend, even on an expanded timeline. Below, I’ve curated events that I’d recommend to one of my clients. Note: I’ve stayed away from specific technology areas — if you are working in AI, Edtech, Food & Ag, Healthcare or VR, take a look at the TCSW schedule here, where there are plenty of exciting opportunities. Instead, I’ve tried to focus on areas where any entrepreneur has the chance to get something valuable.

Entrepreneurship in the Classroom

Earlier this month, a fellow entreVIEW author told us the tale of how his entrepreneurial-minded daughter recently launched a baking business. While I won’t fail to at least briefly acknowledge how much I love hearing about female-led startups (probably even more than I love baked goods!), this post is about why entrepreneurship should be taught in schools at an early age.

I don’t believe entrepreneurship is genetic or inborn. Instead, I believe an entrepreneurial nature can be fostered through imagination, creation and innovation. I, like Dan's daughter, am lucky to have grown up encircled in entrepreneurial sprit. I grew up on a farm and had no better friend and mentor than my Grandpa, a farmer. I followed him everywhere and learned a lot about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, including work ethic, risk management, the impact on reputation and business longevity of keeping a handshake promise and more. In a lot of ways, I view farmers to be the ultimate entrepreneurs. Not everyone is as lucky to be inherently surrounded by entrepreneurship from a young age, which brings me back to my original premise: entrepreneurship should be taught in schools at an early age.

Unless my memory fails me, I did not have a single class on entrepreneurship from elementary through high school. For those without an inherently entrepreneurial home life, school may be the only exposure a young student has to entrepreneurship, especially in rural areas. As with all other fundamental subjects taught in school — math, science, music, etc. — entrepreneurship as a school subject would encourage students to engage with the world around them and imagine what could be different, brainstorm creative problem-solving ideas and scale-up innovations.

A Global Pandemic — Why Not Launch a Business?

You can probably think of lots of reasons why not to launch a business during a global pandemic. If you’re my 13-year-old daughter, you see nothing but opportunity.

Why? Maybe because she’s the daughter of a lawyer who spends his days working with risk-taking entrepreneurs? Maybe because she’s easily bored? Maybe because she just has a lot of entrepreneurial drive (and a bunch of time on her hands)?

The real answer is that it’s because her New Year’s resolution was to turn her love of baking into a “neighborhood” business. Unlike many of us (remember those resolutions to stop snacking or to go to the gym more?), she actually took action: she put together a detailed list of everything needed to launch the business and started checking things off. Items included everything from branding and recipes to registering our kitchen under the Minnesota Cottage Foods Laws.

Of course, then things like life and COVID-19 got in the way! With time on her hands (8th grade distance learning only took her about 1.5 hours a day), she renewed her enthusiasm for the idea after we returned from our one-day trip to Ecuador (which was supposed to be a 10-day spring break trip to the Galapagos Islands…). 

But, like any good entrepreneur, she needed to be able to adapt to a rapidly evolving situation. Instead of trying to go door to door in the neighborhood, she contacted the New Brighton Farmer's Market and secured a bi-weekly space for the summer. About three weeks ago, she officially launched Zizzy Baked GoodZ and sales have been booming! She sold out her inventory her first week at the market (half way through the day) and almost sold out twice as many items the second week — including her “Rainbow Pride Cupcake” (complete with Fresh Pineapple Buttercream), pictured above. She’s even already filled several custom catering orders!

Black Out Tuesday: Resources for Learning and Reflecting

I had originally planned to write this post about cooking trends during COVID-19, but that topic feels insignificant in the wake of the recent killing of George Floyd. Since his death, millions of people, including many entrepreneurs, have taken to the streets to protest police brutality and unequal justice. I’m writing this post on Black Out Tuesday (#blackouttuesday), a social-media initiative that was started by record-industry executives Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas to amplify black voices, to support the Black Lives Matter movement, and to promote policy change. “Take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community,” Agyemang and Thomas urged on their #theshowmustbepaused website.

So, instead of musing on the surge in quarantine baking and the best banana bread recipe, I’d like to use this space to share with our audience of entrepreneurs some resources during a time to reflect on the challenges our society is facing. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I am merely learning myself. My Facebook feed is flooded with recommendations today, but maybe you aren’t seeing the same content or maybe you’re looking for a another perspective. Either way, I hope these resources provide some helpful ways to engage with others during this time.

Books to Read 

The staff at Wild Rumpus, the wonderful children’s bookstore in Linden Hills, has posted a reading list on their website of recommended books for talking about racism and justice. The list is organized by age with a section for young kids, middle grade readers, young adult readers, and adult readers. Wild Rumpus will donate a portion of the proceeds from the books on this list to Black Lives Matter Minnesota. Their no-contact curbside delivery option makes it easy to pick up one of these books.

Films to Watch

In a New York Magazine article, “12 Documentaries You Should Watch About Racism and Police Brutality in America,” Jason Bailey compiled a list of documentaries, which includes the following films:  

• Let the Fire Burn (2013)
• Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992 (2017) / LA 92 (2017)
• Whose Streets? (2017)
• Copwatch (2017)
• 16 Shots (2019)
• Do Not Resist (2016)
• The Force (2017) / Crime + Punishment (2018)
• The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
• 13th (2016)
• I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Remembering Kobe, the Entrepreneur

Last month, we lost Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others in a tragic helicopter crash in California.

We all know Bryant as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and since his passing I have learned more about how he was perhaps an even greater father figure for his daughters. But here we want to recognize Bryant for the entrepreneurism that he diligently pursued with the same “mamba” mentality that earned him many achievements on the hardcourt.

First of all, I could spend paragraphs here analyzing how Bryant’s book, The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, can be turned into fuel for entrepreneurs. If you have not yet read it, do so. For now, given the limited lines I have available, I’ll present you with some of his philosophy.

Bryant explained once that the difference between basketball and entrepreneurship is that in entrepreneurship there is no competitor “directly in front of you;” instead, as an entrepreneur, the challenge is to be constantly creative in a way that impacts the market you are trying to dominate. “But even more so,” he said, “when you play basketball you’ve got to take time off, in order to avoid injury. In business and creativity there is no off switch. Your brain is constantly working.” I think every entrepreneur can attest that the brain is always ticking. (But the picture of Bryant shooting hoops in his pajamas with a cast on one hand makes me wonder whether he ever actually rested, on the court or otherwise!)

Entrepreneurial Tips for 2020

With February here, we are now firmly into the year 2020. At this point, you may finally be readjusted to working a full five-day week (good for you!) and fully back in the swing of things. Even so, if your dream of launching your own business has not dissipated in the new year, we have a few high-level tips for you on how to take the leap from employee to entrepreneur. 

Develop your skillset. As an entrepreneur, you will likely need skills you might not have acquired yet. Right now, you may be excellent at your job. If you are a high school guidance counselor, for example, your skills likely include an ability to work with youths, create and implement a plan with actionable school-to-career steps, develop a guidance curriculum, coordinate with social services agencies and parents, and maintain records. So you are adept at performing a handful of tasks within specific boundaries, but you haven’t ever had to run an entire organization from top to bottom. You likely don’t have experience in forming an entity (we can help!), hiring practices, payroll, bill collection, or managing human resources. As an entrepreneur, especially as a new entrepreneur, you will likely be responsible for all of that and more.

Prepare to keep learning. Running a business will require continuous learning as technology, consumer trends, market standards, and customer or client demands change. Daunting though it may be, you don’t have to go it alone. Early and continuing success can be fueled by online, and sometimes free, business courses and seminars. 

For example: 

• LinkedIn Learning offers a range of courses relevant to entrepreneurs and business leaders, including “Learning Data Analytics,” “Time Management Fundamentals,” “Strategic Thinking,” and “Project Management Foundations.”
• Women Who Code has a list of ways to start learning how to code right now for free, which include iTunes U, Kids Ruby, Mozilla’s Developer Network, Google’s Code University, P2PU, and Net Tuts+.
• Coursera offers hundreds of free courses, including Business Foundations, Business Analytics, and Excel Skills for Business, among many, many others.

Your area community also may have support groups for entrepreneurs or business-minded people. Unless you have worked long enough in a large operation and been privy to the inner-workings of building and growing a business, you will most likely have a steep learning curve to overcome. Take advantage of the tools and resources available to you to make your transition from employee to entrepreneur smoother. 

You are not alone

This week (October 9-16) is startup week here in the Twin Cities. It is a time when you can find entrepreneurs, from all walks of life throughout various corners of the metro area, coming together to learn from and celebrate each other. There is something on the agenda for almost everybody.

Meanwhile, startup weeks have happened, are happening, or are otherwise scheduled to happen all over the country (see some links below). It’s a powerful reminder to all entrepreneurs that you are not alone in your journey. To be a successful founder, you need to have a network of mentors, so find ways to reach out to and embrace your local founder community, whether it be at a startup week gathering or otherwise.

One awesome example of this in action is Josh Fedie at SalesReach, a Minneapolis-based startup that has developed a system to help sales teams deliver marketing-approved content to sales prospects at the right time (what he calls “Smarketing”). In addition to putting in hours to run his business, Josh has committed significant hours building a strong following for his podcast, The Founders Mentality, which consists of casual, conversational interviews with a plethora of successful founders. He has become one of my favorite LinkedIn profiles to follow because, as a startup attorney who works with founders nearly every day, I find that the interviews offer invaluable insight into all sorts of hot topics for founders and help me better understand the founder “mentality” so that I can better serve my clients.

Matt McCarthy, The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year (Crown, 2015)

Summer associate season has come and gone at law firms across the country. Eager young people dressed to impress are returning to jeans and flip-flops as they contemplate a return to law school in a few weeks. Those of us closer to the end than the beginning of our careers cast their minds back to a time when we could recite the names and holdings of significant court cases but were stymied by the simplest forms.

Ah yes, the distinction between book learning and practical skill. Turns out, the fancy schooling is a necessary but not sufficient precondition to a successful career. This is not news to old-timers. Whatever the field, somehow we must all bridge the gulf between knowledge and implementation.

And, indeed, the process is remarkably similar no matter what your field may be. Take, for instance, Dr. Matt McCarthy. A former minor league baseball player and graduate of Harvard Medical School, he finds himself thrown in the deep end as he begins his internship at a Manhattan hospital. He’s told that Ivy graduates have a reputation for being heavy on theory but light in practical skill. He discovers, to his chagrin, that he fits the stereotype.

The medical internship process may be more immersive than in other professions and lines of business (and the stakes may be higher), but the story arc determined by a steep learning curve is something entrepreneurs will recognize, whatever their background. There is simply no substitute for learning by doing, with the help and guidance of experienced mentors. In time, raging self-doubt will yield to competence and growing confidence. This memoir is a fascinating, and for some no doubt reassuring, reminder of this. 

Make Time for Lemonade

It was steamy hot this weekend in Minneapolis. The blow-up pool was out on the back lawn 24/7, Saturday required a morning and evening shower, and I thought maybe if I buzzed my head things would be better.

In the midst of this rainforest weather, my young daughters (3 and 5) ran a lemonade stand in the front yard. As I watched over their business operations, it occurred to me: a lemonade stand provides a perfect introduction to entrepreneurship.

Now our kids had it easy as my wife and I did not demand repayment for the costs of their inventory or require a lien on their toys, but they still sold product, served customers, and practiced counting their precious coins (and bills in some cases from generous customers). More importantly, they gained self-esteem and inspiration to plan more for next time.

Meanwhile, the older (9) girl next door stepped it up a notch with a friend. They bought their own supplies (lemons, cups, napkins, sparkling water, watermelon, and cookies) and established a posh stand down on a busy street and, as they say, made bank. Lemonade was 75 cents, but you could make it sparkling for 25 cents more. Want a cookie or slice of watermelon to go with it? That’s another 50 or 75 cents, respectively.

J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (Harper, 2016)

From where does the drive for excellence come? J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy — a coming-of-age memoir of a man raised in poverty — offers a perspective rooted in the culture of desperation endemic to the former coal fields of Appalachia.

This is not just a “poor boy makes good” story, though Vance manages to move gradually beyond the limited expectations of his upbringing and ultimately finds himself at an elite law school (something that the authors of this blog know a little about). This is, as one might expect, partly a paean to hard work and individualism, partly a criticism of well-intentioned government programs that actually undermine their purposes.

On the other hand, the book also makes it clear that success is not just a matter of personal effort and ability, but also a matter of personal support — which enables Vance to rise above limited horizons — and, to a greater extent, luck.

Why does one person succeed while another fails? Why does one follow a path of aspiration and another a path of desperation? Tough questions. 

Circumventing Subscription Requirements Can Cost Big Bucks

By: Dean C. Eyler, Loren L. Hansen, and Molly R. Littman

You have probably been here before: A colleague tells you to check out an article on [insert your preferred news outlet here]. You click on the link or go to the news outlet’s website, but in order to read the entire article you have to subscribe to the publication or pay $0.99 to view the article. You are genuinely interested in reading the article, but the process of filling out the subscription form with your personal contact and credit card information is tedious and you are busy. So you ask your colleague to send you a copy of the article. She does. As it turns out, she received the article as part of her company’s subscription to the news outlet. You work for the same company. However, she is a part of the company’s limited subscription to the newspaper and you are not.

She has just committed copyright infringement and may be liable for up to $30,000 in statutory damages. If she sent you more than one article, she may liable for up to $30,000 for each article sent. To make matters worse, if she knew that sending the article would be a violation of the news outlet’s copyright, she may be liable for up $150,000 in statutory damages per article. Given that this was a company subscription, it’s unlikely the individual will be sued, but rather the company is likely on the hook for the damages incurred by her sending you the article. You, she, and several others at the company are now embroiled in expensive, time-consuming litigation for something that easily could have been prevented with appropriate employee training.

From 2017 to 2018 copyright infringement lawsuits increased by more than 50%. Under 17 U.S.C. § 504, a copyright registrant who prevails in a copyright infringement lawsuit may be entitled to statutory damages ranging between $750 and $30,000 for each work infringed. Statutory damages are intended to help copyright owners enforce their rights where actual damages are difficult to prove, and also to deter infringers. If the infringement was willful — with knowledge of the owner’s copyright — the range increases to $150,000. If the copyright owner prevails in litigation, it is also entitled to its costs and, in many cases, attorneys’ fees.