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Rajeev Malik: From Lawyer to Entrepreneur
July 14, 2010 @ 10:30 am
Rajeev Malik is the co-founder of KikScore, a great venture that allows small businesses to prove to customers that they have a solid track record and are reliable and trustworthy vendors. Raj explained to us how, ironically, his experience being a trial lawyer led him to be an entrepreneur:
My co-founder Mike Mauseth and I are former lawyers. One day we said, “Hey look, small businesses have this issue.” They can’t show that they’re trustworthy. But these businesses have a track record. If a business is current on their bills and has never been sued, they have no way to take this information and display it on their website. We knew people had this issue from previous clients, and at the time, Mike and I wanted to leave the rat race of being lawyers. We launched in late 2009, and have now grown to a team of seven employees.
You wouldn’t think that lawyers would become entrepreneurs, but having both a legal and business background worked really well. When you’re on trial, the facts of your case is your product, and you have to spin it and pitch it to your jury. The trail work we did really prepared us to be entrepreneurs in that you’re trying to create and present facts in a unique way.
Our biggest mistake with KikScore was picking the wrong outsourcing outlet. A big item for startups now is to outsource non-core functionalities. But you have to make sure that the company you are using has appropriately qualified developers on your account, and not junior developers.
I think that there are two aspects of being an entrepreneur. The first is that you’re out there. You see a need. You decide there’s a way to address it, and you decide to stand up and fix it. The second part is constantly trying to learn about different business models to get a better business model for yourself. It’s an insatiable appetite to work with other small business owners.
My advice to future entrepreneurs is: have a plan. Focus on that plan, but at the same time, be flexible to change it based on the market. You also have to be so, so resilient.
Great profile, and best of luck to Rajeev and Mike.
My co-founders and I are lawyers, too, but from the deal side not litigation. Nothing about our practice led us to start Zavee but I think our legal experience has made us better entrepreneurs.
Our biggest advantage is exactly what Rajeev referred to: balancing focus and flexibility. Weak willed lawyers can’t get what their clients need, but inflexible lawyers can’t close a deal. We learned to strike the right balance as lawyers practice and it has served us well as we develop and launch Zavee.
I think the ability to learn quickly also is helpful in both environments. Working in a new space – social shopping – and developing complex software presented daunting learning curves, but we probably got up to speed faster because of our experience as lawyers.