Defy Ventures teaches entrepreneurship in prisons. It changed how I think about founders |
Defy Ventures teaches entrepreneurship in prisons. It changed how I think about founders
I love going to prison with Andrew Glazier.
Glazier is the CEO of Defy Ventures, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit running entrepreneurship training programs in prisons across eight states. And twice now, I’ve tagged along at Defy events, including a New York coaching day and a California pitch competition. As you might expect, there are all sorts of rules in prison: first names only, no promises, no asking ‘what you’re in for,’ high-fives and fist bumps. But I’d argue there’s one rule that matters above the others: That this is fundamentally humanizing.
“When you walk into a Defy class, the first thing we’re expressing to you is that you’re a human with unique gifts and talents,” said Glazier, who’s run the organization since the founder’s departure in 2018. “You’re no longer ‘inmate number blank.’ You’re now an entrepreneur-in-training. What do you want to do?”
Entrepreneur-in-training (or EIT) is an important turn of phrase at Defy—there are no “convicts” or “inmates,” just EITs and volunteers. And I should say: I’ve shown up to these events as a volunteer, not as a journalist. But—as a person who interviews entrepreneurs and investors for a living—I asked Glazier if I could write about Defy, and what it reveals about entrepreneurship itself.
As it turns out, even in prison, a pitch is a pitch and a business is a business.
“Legal and illegal businesses involve the same skill sets,” said Glazier. “They require thoughtfulness around cash management, followership, marketing, inventory management, operations. So, for us, it’s about how you transform that hustle… We’re looking to employ entrepreneurship as a transformational frame.”
These pitches from EITs are often good to great, and frankly make more sense than half the startup pitches that hit my inbox each day. Unlike startup founders (kidding, mostly), EITs have rules for the businesses they’re proposing—there needs to be a clear customer problem you’re solving, a minimum viable product, a plan for overhead costs, and a possible path to scale. They’re........