Meet BSL Group
Meet SCAPE Company, BSL Group, a legal and professional services company specializing in Web3 and emerging tech, future-proofing global startups at any stage, from idea to exit. Learn more about how BSL Group is working with companies on the bleeding edge of technology and how this serial entrepreneur caught the “founder flu” from a family of dreamers.
Q: What’s your name, title, business?
A: Richard Sherman, CEO & Co-Founder of BSL Group
Q: What does your business do?
A: We help emerging technology founders future-proof their companies. We provide specialized legal, operational, compliance, and business consulting to startups and companies operating at the bleeding edge of technology (particularly Web3 and Blockchain). We’re what’s called an Alternative Legal Services Provider (aka ALSP). We’re not a law firm - and that’s a good thing. It means we are in a unique position where we can provide innovative solutions as part of a more tightly integrated relationship. If we do our job well, the people chasing their dreams input the functional support they need from real legal and technical experts, freeing them up to focus on their business. They can let us navigate the regulatory minefield that you get when you move faster than lawmakers and regulators.
Q: Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey.
A: I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life. Both sides of my family are littered with people who loudly proclaimed that “anyone can do anything if they work hard and treat people well”. Some were more successful than others, but nonetheless I caught the founder flu.
I went to school for “Visual Communication with an emphasis on Interactive Technology”. I came up just after the dot-com bust, so there wasn’t a clearly defined industry yet. The major just sort of applied traditional design and communications to “Internet Stuff”. That major taught me a few valuable lessons. First, don’t depend on someone else to tell you what qualifies as important knowledge. And second, the world is moving fast; get on board or get left behind.
And so I set out to catch that ride. I started my own freelance design/dev shop straight out of college and grew that into a successful creative agency building brands and technology for clients of every size, from main street to fortune 500 companies. Looking to engage more with builders on their terms, I moved on to a consultant/advisor role working with early-stage product startups to build low-cost high-impact MVPs and helped bring them to market. I also started and failed a few other small ventures, the most disappointing being a therapy-focused tracker and journal with companion app that fell flat before its time
As I was pivoting into a more software engineering focus I was approached by my old friend and now business partner David Lopez-Kurtz about a new take on legal and compliance services for Web3 and Blockchain builders. I was hooked, and here I am a year in, always looking for new and innovative solutions to unstick founders and open the doors to their innovation.
Q: What was the most powerful lesson you learned on this journey?
A: It’s all about people. My observation has been that folks collectively forget people faster than most would like to admit. For my money though, service has to come first. BSL is built on helping. Founders, product teams, end users, any and everyone we can, both personally and professionally. Individually, I try to live in this ethos to the best of my ability. I try to be a supportive friend, neighbor, and colleague to a borderline unhealthy level. Sure, I’ve been burned before, but the ratio of net positive to negative outcomes is so heavily weighted in favor of love that I simply will not stop. And neither will BSL.
Q: Why did you apply for the SCAPE Program?
A: For me, the biggest reason to apply for SCAPE is their dedication to enriching the lives of the people here in SW Colorado. BSL Group is a 100% remote company at the moment, and while we won’t be requiring anyone to come to the office any time soon, the idea of giving our workforce a home base nestled in the San Juans feels too right. We’re hoping that, with SCAPE’s help, we can figure out the right equation to bring a BSL brand of future-proofing to the four corners for good.
Q: What companies inspire you the most (local, national, worldwide)?
A: Locally, I’m inspired by many of the other home-grown businesses turning this town into more than just a postcard town. EsoTerra, Agile, and Farm to Summit to start, doing innovative things in wildly different ways right here in Durango. Stories like Mercury-Vantiv-WorldPay, MUNIRevs, and On The Barrelhead motivate me to build something great in Durango to share with the world. I deeply respect and admire visionary new companies moving climate tech forward, like Propeller and Oliizoi, finding innovative ways to help fix our broken relationship with this planet.
Q: What do you love most about Southwest Colorado?
A: I feel like it’s the best sort of place to raise my girls. It’s the perfect intersection of technology, innovation, home-town, big nature - the whole picture, in under 20k people. I tell people that this place is where I can keep a foot in the forest and a foot in the future - not many places like it in the world.
Learn more at: https://bsl.group
