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.
