Paul Judge always is one high-fashion step ahead of the game. He has consistently found ways for small ideas, designs or mathematical calculations to manifest into huge successes—recognition from MIT as one of the world’s top innovators included. It has been his insistence at walking the path less traveled that has made Judge an ideal entrepreneurial case study.
Judge’s first idea with fellow undergraduate students manifested into an e-mail security company that sold in 2006 for $273 million. His second venture turned into a functioning—and still thriving—company that secures online digital media. He remains Atlanta-based Purewire’s CTO.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Judge has changed the game again, this time in the fashion industry. While he might not be designing the high-end urban wear himself [think metallic, Hermes high-top men’s shoes], Judge did design the business plan with his cousin, a designer who has styled celebrities in pricey urban wear.
“He was looking at doing a boutique in New Orleans,” Judge says, “and I was helping with the business plan because I find that sort of thing fun. I went from saying I would help, to saying I would invest, to becoming a partner. And then we went from saying we would do just one store in New Orleans to doing one in New Orleans and one in Towne Center in Baton Rouge.”
Urban wear might not be the most common type of retail in the Capital Region, but it is proof that Judge has an eye for picking out what’s next. “I’ve been privileged enough to enjoy life in lots of cities and lots of countries,” he says. And that lifestyle has made him privy to the next big thing headed stateside from places like London and Tokyo.
Chances are Judge will be ahead of the next game, too. He’s already preparing the future’s players by mentoring college students and speaking to elementary school children. “I just want them to understand that there’s more out there in life for them to choose from,” he says, “for them to do.”
Age: 31
How do you make yourself heard in the discussion on how to move Baton Rouge forward?
“Lead by example and practice what you preach.”
Click here for the complete list of 2008's Forty Under 40 winners.
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