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Listen in from your favorite podcast spots or read the full transcript here.

OUR SPONSORS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Founders Live
The global venue for entrepreneurs to experience events, content, and community.
Check out founderslive.com to join and to find a live event near you.

BRINGING 21ST CENTURY DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE TO THE SECOND OLDEST PROFESSION…MEDIATION

 

Melissa Brogdon is Co-Founder and CEO of FourthParty, a justice technology company that increases access to mediation services so that people can resolve legal conflicts outside of court.

Proud to hail from Oakland, Melissa was raised by an incredible role model – her great grandmother. Despite opportunities to stay local for college at Berkeley, she followed the urging of a mentor and went to Spelman, a premier HBCU in Atlanta. Emerging from undergrad with confidence and curiosity, Melissa was initially a teacher, but ultimately pursued a successful career in the nonprofit sector. But then came the opportunity to work with her partner and husband to build his law practice. It was there that Melissa saw firsthand the impact of mediation, AND the clear needs mediators had. And so FourthParty was born.

Melissa has a great story. You’ll want to listen in.

 

“…we really needed to figure out how to bring technology to make this career accessible, to make the service available to the everyday person. And that was where the spark happened…
~ Melissa Brogdon

In this episode Melissa and Dan discussed:

  • Growing up in Oakland
  • Her journey from teaching to philanthropy to entrepreneurship
  • How the pandemic drove an explosion in the need for mediation
  • When she found out she was part of the first Google for Startups class
  • Why “first” isn’t always best

 

 

The right investor gets it…we’re looking for those people.
~ Melissa Brogdon

 

“ Our courts Continue to be in crisis…
~ Melissa Brogdon

Listen in from your favorite podcast spots or read the full transcript here.

OUR SPONSORS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Founders Live

The global venue for entrepreneurs to experience events, content, and community.
Check out founderslive.com to join and to find a live event streaming from your city.

 

Can you represent yourself in court?
IT Just got a whole lot easier

 

Dr. Sonja Ebron Co-founder and CEO of Courtroom5, a company that makes an automated legal toolbox that helps people represent themselves in court.

Sonja has one of the amazing backgrounds, engineering academia, a repeat entrepreneur, but it took a challenging experience of our own with the legal system to unleash your mission and passion for the startup life. She has a strong conviction that fairness and the justice system shouldn’t depend on inequitable access to knowledge or resources and our conversation. She talked about the allure of engineering doing a startup in Durham, North Carolina, and so much more.

Sonja has a great story. Be sure to listen in.

 

“We’re dealing with a broken business model in the legal profession.
~ Sonja Ebron

In this episode Sonja and Dan discussed:

  • growing up in Durham NC
  • The call to engineering
  • The career arc between academia and entrepreneurship
  • Why the legal system can feel rigged
  • How African Americans are, by necessity, innovative and entrepreneurial

 

 

“ I am always trying to find a way to do things simpler.
~ Sonja Ebron

 

“The average cost of a lawyer is $300 [per hour].
Right now, the average American makes a 10th of that.

~ Sonja Ebron