Ralph Kennedy Pope has extensive professional experience in international law, acquisitions, litigation management, investigations, and negotiating enterprise infrastructure agreements and information technology contracts. He has also provided support for a variety of labor and compliance legal issues, as well as legal support for international sales, environmental matters, intellectual property matters and employment issues.
Red Oak International assists in business formation and development with a focus on finding and exploiting unique technologies, with an emphasis on finding non-traditional funding sources. ROI also assists small businesses with access to the federal market.
Some recent accomplishments over the last 18 months included: helping to create a major market initiative for a mid-tier business (35M in sales) that produced 400M dollars in federal government proposals.
What are you working on right now?
We are working on a DNA identification program with 23 ad ME and marketing it to a new audience.
Where did the idea for Red Oak International come from?
The idea emerged from long standing discussions with dentists about how to engage revenues- even if to pay for a 529 programs for children- or provide a bonus for office workers.
How do you make money?
We make money by taking a small royalty payment and an equity position in the new company we are forming.
What does your typical day look like?
A typical day includes traditional lawyering – but much work on a new set of ideas including getting companies we support “investment ready”
How do you bring ideas to life?
Ideas emerge from a range of sources – attending incubator sessions – and self-developed if we see a need we organize to meet the need.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The trend that excites me is the intersection of genetics and IT technology- in the future we will all have an understanding of our genetic profile, much like our blood type.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
If I were to start now, I would probably finish my MBA and skip law school.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you go about it?
If I could change one thing in the world- I would declare war on cancer.. it is an illness that deserves a manhattan style project.
Tell us a secret.
If I told you a secret- that could be bad news for both of us.
What are your three favorite online tools or resources and what do you love about them?
Three favorites tools online- GUST- Kickstarter and stumbleupon (fourth is quirky)
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
My favorite book in the last years are the Nassim Taleb- Black Swan-
Three people we should follow on Twitter and why? (please don’t include yourself)
I follow a number of astronauts on twitter..including a Canadian astronaut that performed a joint concert with folks on the ground.. amazing… stuff
When was the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it?
Laughed out loud to some college humor you tube video.. (and of course all the Anthony Weiner headlines in the ny newspapers.)
Who is your hero?
My heroes – my mom and dad..
Connect:
Contact: 703-939-0847
Ralph Pope on LinkedIn:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.