Bradley Keywell on entrepreneurship
From Michigan Ross Commencement 2022 Guest Speaker: Brad Keywell · · RossSchoolofBusiness
“When I sat alone at a desk starting Echo Global Logistics I didn't just think that it could work — my gut was on fire with its inevitability. Four years after I founded the company it went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange; last year Echo's revenue was over three billion dollars.”
On , Bradley Keywell, Former Cofounder at Uptake Technologies, spoke about entrepreneurship during Michigan Ross Commencement 2022 Guest Speaker: Brad Keywell on RossSchoolofBusiness.
About Bradley Keywell
Bradley Keywell delivered the commencement address at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in 2022. During his speech, he discussed his entrepreneurial career, including founding Echo Global Logistics, co-founding Groupon, and founding Uptake Technologies, an industrial artificial intelligence software company. Keywell described his approach to business as being driven by "wonder" and intuition, stating that when he started Echo Global Logistics, "my gut was on fire with its inevitability." He also encouraged graduates to embrace risk and authenticity, saying "risk being your authentic self" and that "if you fail it's okay; it's an opportunity to learn and be better the next time." Keywell, who was named EY World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019, also shared personal anecdotes, including a story about writing a letter to a Michigan football coach as a child and receiving a signed poster years later. He advised graduates to "do nothing" periodically to create space for reflection, and to measure their lives by how proud they make their seven-year-old and 77-year-old selves. Keywell holds a BBA from Michigan Ross and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and serves as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.