IAM2488 – Founder Helps Startups and Established Entities Develop Patent Portfolios

Speaker 1

00:00 - 00:48

You know, if there is a way that we can utilize all of the data that's available on patent examiners at the patent office to help determine which ones are the most likely to allow a patent and which ones are the least likely to allow a patent by using publicly available data, then we can really distinguish ourselves and help find our clients a much faster path to getting a patent with hopefully having broader patents and being able to get them with less arguing. Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place.

Speaker 1

00:48 - 01:01

Grist values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the IMCEO podcast. Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the IMCEO podcast, and I have an awesome guest on the show today.

Speaker 1

01:01 - 01:08

I have Dr. Keegan Codwell. Dr. Keegan, excited to have you on the show. Thrilled to be here. It's a beautiful day up here in Boston, but.

Speaker 1

01:09 - 01:21

Glad that we could find the time to connect. Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you for taking some time and, you know, talking with us about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Dr. Keegan so you can hear about some of those awesome things.

Speaker 1

01:21 - 01:48

And Dr. Keegan is the founder and managing partner of the Codwell Law Firm. Dr. Keegan has extensive and diverse experience with advising clients from innovation conception to nine to 10 figure monetization events. Dr. Kagan works with startups and established entities to develop patent portfolios with as many options as possible for a return on investment. He has assisted his clients to developing patent portfolios valued at more than $24 billion.

Speaker 1

01:48 - 02:20

And Dr. Kagan has significant boots on the ground experience using IP to leverage equity funding, debt funding, and for his use in strategic M&A. Dr. Keegan is a regular featured speaker at MIT on Wall Street and a prominent IP thought leadership events focused on using intellectual property as an asset to accomplish business executives. And as I mentioned when I was reading, Dr. Keegan has done some phenomenal things. He is often like speaking at events like MIT, as I mentioned, Wall Street events.

Speaker 1

02:20 - 02:37

He also discusses business as an asset. He's served as a chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum and Innovation Series, is a member of the Young Professionals Organizations, and he also sits on the board of directors at the Boston Children's Museum. He's committed to a lot of social initiatives as well, too. He's just a phenomenal person.

Speaker 1

02:37 - 02:47

We've had some light chatting before we popped in, so I know this is going to be a phenomenal conversation. Dr. Keegan, are you ready to speak to the IMCO community? I'm ready to go. I'm thrilled to be here.

Speaker 1

02:47 - 03:01

I want to rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on how you got started. Could you take us through what I call your CO story? When I got done with high school, I joined the Marines. So I was in the Marines for a bit, did that, got out.

Speaker 1

03:01 - 03:16

And so I joined the Marines before any college or anything like that. I had no intention of going to college. Um, uh, my folks were hard, hardworking people and, uh, but blue collar folks. And I thought I'd just do the same thing, right?

Speaker 1

03:16 - 03:38

They had a, they had a decent life and I figured I'd do the same thing. So, uh, joined the Marines, got out. Um, I, when I got out, I ended up starting like my first, uh, business shortly thereafter as a home builder in the DC area. I guess more accurately, I was building like decks and screening porches and things like that on the back of all the townhouses, right?

Speaker 1

03:39 - 03:57

But then I made the decision at some point that I should use my GI Bill. I applied to a bunch of colleges and universities and got in most places I applied, amazingly, because I was a terrible high school student, but apparently they liked that I was in the Marines. Maybe they just knew I could write the check. I don't know.

Speaker 1

04:00 - 04:09

So that was what I did. And I did my undergrad in Michigan at Western Michigan University. They just won the national championship in hockey yesterday. Go Broncos.

Speaker 1

04:11 - 04:19

Big moment for them. You don't win a lot of national championships in anything at Western. We even make it to playoff moments. It's a big deal.

Speaker 1

04:20 - 04:35

Yes, celebrate the wins when you can. Yeah, exactly. And so I did my undergrad there and then I I ended up getting a PhD in physical chemistry at George Washington University. During that time, I had a couple other startups.

Speaker 1

04:36 - 05:15

I had one cosmetics-type startup that I was a founder of, and then I had another startup that I was the only founder of that was called AllEnergyStock.com that I was able to raise some money for. was a lot of fun. But I learned, you know, it ended up I needed to give the money back to the investors due to some issues at the university. But and it was a great experience, though, either way, and taught me a lot that maybe I had this potential to be able to do something that was beyond what I had anticipated for my life.

Speaker 1

05:16 - 05:37

And even though I wasn't really thinking that, really, I just wanted to finish my PhD and get a job. But when I did an internship at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, one of the years during my PhD, and I thought, this is really cool. I like what these guys are doing. I don't want to work at the government office of this, but I'd love to work in private practice and to become a lawyer.

Speaker 1

05:37 - 05:57

And so I started to look into becoming a lawyer. Along the way I learned that I could take the patent bar without going to law school so if you have if you've taken a Like if you have a hard science background in engineering or hard sciences, they allow you to study for and take the patent bar, which is a federal bar and you can practice in any state. So I had done that.

Speaker 1

05:57 - 06:27

And then I also learned that in California, in Vermont, you could take the state bar without going to law school. So I could save myself, you know, $300,000 by not having to pay for law school. And that I was a little bit of an old, I was not like a dramatically older student, but because I'd done the Marine Corps before I went to school, I was a little bit older. It made sense for me to find a faster path and it made sense for me to not have to spend 300k on law school.

Speaker 1

06:27 - 06:53

So I studied for the state, you know, did the patent bar, took past that, studied for the state bar, took and passed that. This was all after my PhD. So I eventually finished that PhD, got a job at a law firm, worked there for a couple of years, but along the way I learned that there was some like dramatic inefficiencies at law firm. So I felt like there was some things that I could do better.

Speaker 1

06:53 - 07:14

And I also felt like there was this opportunity to include new types of technology that we could adopt new forms of technology and that that would help distinguish us from the all the other law firms that were 100 years old and had lots of, you know, the bougie law firms that had all this cachet. Right. I was never going to have that because they're always going to be 100, 150 years older than I am.

Speaker 1

07:16 - 07:36

So how could I distinguish myself? And I figured that tech was one way and given a better ROI on patents was another way. And so I left and started the firm. I was able to scale that from that small office to where I'm sitting today, which is at the top floor of the Hancock Tower here in Boston.

Speaker 1

07:38 - 07:53

We have a beautiful office here. We have beautiful offices in Los Angeles that overlook Santa Monica Pier. a beautiful office like two blocks from Buckingham Palace in London. And we're opening a Tokyo, Japan office May 1st.

Speaker 1

07:54 - 08:12

So this was all happened in the last nine years. It's been a big change for me to go from that to that. And there was a there was a couple of things I feel like we did right along the way. But that's the basic story of where I started and kind of where I am now.

Speaker 1

08:12 - 08:20

Nice. Well, I appreciate you so much in sharing that journey. So I know you touched on it a little bit. We'd love to drill down a little bit more here, like how you're working with and serving your clients.

Speaker 1

08:20 - 08:36

Could you take us through a little bit more on what that process looks like and some of the clients that you're working with and serving? Sure. So we started as this only focused on intellectual property law. And The way that we were able to distinguish ourselves, like I said, we wanted to adopt some technology.

Speaker 1

08:36 - 09:23

If there is a way that we can utilize all of the data that's available on patent examiners at the patent office to help determine which ones are the most likely to allow a patent and which ones are the least likely to allow a patent, by using publicly available data, then we can really distinguish ourselves and help find our clients a much faster path to getting a patent with hopefully having broader patents and being able to get them with less arguing. And so that was kind of the thesis at the beginning. We were successful at keeping the lights on, but what we learned over time was that we were providing easily like a 30% to 40% value add from what any competitor of ours was was providing.

Speaker 1

09:24 - 09:50

And so that technology helped us grow from being the small one man shop to having a global presence. We have over 30 unicorns that we work with, you know, companies with over a billion dollar valuations. We have large global corporates that we work with, you know, some of the largest Silicon Valley tech companies that you can think of. And We started with nothing.

Speaker 1

09:51 - 10:14

Create a value add that they could not get somewhere else. Create a client experience that they could not get somewhere else. And so that's what we focused on. And so starting with IP, working with all those sorts of clients, especially with the startups, and over time what happened because we were working with funding rounds and beginning to use patents to help people get more money and to drive up the valuations of companies.

Speaker 1

10:15 - 10:48

that we had, without our even knowing so, developed a corporate practice. And then we brought on a team of corporate people the last few years and opened our London office, and now the Tokyo, Japan office will be opening soon. And that allows us to serve the largest companies in the world at a price point that they cannot get anywhere else. I mean, our firm, is the only firm in the world of our size that has that sort of global presence.

Speaker 1

10:48 - 11:14

And because we have just a lower overhead and a higher degree of technology proficiency, we're able to provide an even greater discount on what they'd normally have to pay. And we always say around here, you just got to show them the love. because you can go a lot of other places to get stuff. And even though we're providing a great service at a little bit lower price point, if you show the love, people will feel it.

Speaker 1

11:15 - 11:24

Yeah, absolutely. I love that as well, too. And so what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call CEO hack? So this could be like an app, a book or even a habit that you have.

Speaker 1

11:25 - 11:58

What's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient? I have been involved in like 12 step recovery through AA for nearly two decades. It allows me to constantly be introspective and acknowledge to have a deep enough level, an uncomfortable level of self-honesty, something that I think makes most people uncomfortable, and to know exactly what my role is in something and to be able to put myself in the shoes of others to experience empathy as well.

Speaker 1

12:03 - 12:25

Yeah. Right. Like when I can clear most of that stuff out and get back to those basic principles of business has got to make money, you know, you know, doing great work for folks, you know, sticking to the things that I know that work. What are the action steps I can take instead of being caught up in my head with something that's useless is.

Speaker 1

12:26 - 12:55

Um, and I just need, you know, having the awareness to acknowledge those things and get rid of it and move on with what I can has been super useful for me. Right. And I think the other thing too, is it's like this could apply in, uh, like 12 step recovery context, or it could apply to anybody, but having your circle tight, you know, like where there's people, you know, like my people from recovery, like, to me, like, they've seen me at some very dramatically different phases of my life.

Speaker 1

12:56 - 13:13

And just like your best friend that's known you since you were a kid, right? Like, they're just like, you know, some of them could care less what I'm doing. Like, you know, they're like, congratulations, but how are you doing? You know, like that's what they, you know, how are you doing?

Speaker 1

13:13 - 13:29

And so you got these people that they're there for you no matter what kind of people, no matter what club folks. And that's, those are those kinds of people I want to be by, right? That's where I get my, because as a CEO, you're always on. I think that's another like really valuable point.

Speaker 1

13:29 - 13:41

I love how the hack and the nugget for you go hand in hand. Keegan, truly appreciate that. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show.

Speaker 1

13:41 - 14:05

So Dr. Keegan, what does being a CEO mean to you? I think a true CEO lives a life of service, not just to his company, his or her company, but to a society in general, to our families, to everybody, right? Like that, I think, is the ultimate calling in life, is to be able to be of service to others. And I think that when you, when I can wake up and be that each day, I'm being the best CEO version of myself, right?

Speaker 1

14:06 - 14:23

Where there's no self-serving decision-making. It's only about what's best for the health of the team. And sometimes that involves tough decisions. The Celtics are going to win the national championship again this year.

Speaker 1

14:26 - 14:32

But they do that because they trade players. And that's hard to do. Because I'm a big fan. And we fall in love with some of those players.

Speaker 1

14:32 - 14:42

And then they have to leave. And you go, man, that's a bummer. But they do it because it's what makes the team the best. And the same thing is true for what we do here at our firm.

Speaker 1

14:43 - 15:09

It's one of the harder parts of my job is that sometimes people that were a fit a few years ago, they're not a fit for the stage of growth that we're at today. Now we always try to, you know, we value a lot of things about people and we always try to keep people, but, uh, ultimately, you know, sometimes you need to make tough decisions. And if it's not the decision that makes the most sense for the team, it's not the right decision. And the faster I can get it making those decisions, the best, you know, uh, version of myself I am.

Speaker 1

15:09 - 15:14

And it's all. being of service. Yeah, absolutely. I love that definition.

Speaker 1

15:14 - 15:47

Truly appreciate you, of course, for taking some time out and all the awesome things that you're doing. But I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And, of course, how best people can get a whole view, find out about all the awesome things you and the team are working on. For folks that, you know, want to are looking for legal counsel to help them through whatever stage of company that they are, whether they're just getting started or they have some large entity, and they're interested in reaching out, they can find us at CaldwellLaw.com, or they can just

Speaker 1

15:47 - 16:00

Google my name. You'll find me in a thousand articles about me. Hopefully mostly flattering, but Keegan Caldwell, or you can look me up on LinkedIn, Keegan Caldwell. There's not a lot of Keegan Caldwell, so I'm lucky in that regard.

Speaker 1

16:00 - 16:12

It's not like James Smith or something like that. So if you Google Keegan Caldwell, you'll find me. And if you wanna be entertained, you can find me on Instagram. There you go.

Speaker 1

16:13 - 16:25

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, I appreciate that, Dr. Keegan. And of course, to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes as well, too, making it even easier for people to follow you and connect with you and find out about all the awesome things that you're doing. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Speaker 1

16:25 - 16:34

My pleasure, man. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the IMCEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media.

Speaker 1

16:35 - 16:55

Tune in next time and visit us at imceo.co. IMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at bluesixtymedia.com. This has been the IMCEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr.

Speaker 1

16:56 - 16:56

Thank you for listening.