Risk, Reward, Repeat: Ahead of the Curve With Kevin Laws ’88
Inside a tech career built on bold moves, big ideas—and seeing what others miss
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Kevin Laws ’88 zigged into a bold new future when he started college at age 15. Many fruitful mistakes later, he’s an innovator and leader at the intersections of technology and business, with a knack for anticipating needs and potential others might miss.
Fast-tracked (and a bit subversive)
Laws' Dickinson story begins with Professors Priscilla and Ken Laws—his parents, and the pioneers of the college’s acclaimed workshop physics program. As a kid, he spent a good deal of time with them on campus. After skipping eighth grade, he petitioned his parents to let him also skip his senior year of high school and enroll at Dickinson early. They agreed.
“What I loved about college was the freedom to study everything—acting, religion, American studies, creative writing, Spanish, probability,” Laws remembers. That made it challenging to pick just one major. But when he learned that his math credits could be applied to a computer science degree, Laws took the most efficient route: He declared a computer science major during his junior year.
It was an electric time to be in tech, with breakthroughs arriving faster than anyone could predict.
When the college cut funding for Greek activities, sparking controversy across campus, Laws and his friend Steve Greenberg ’88 created a satirical newspaper, using humor to ease tensions. With no printing budget, they used laser printers to print out the issues—a new concept at the dawn of the personal-computer era. The paper was wildly popular, and they anonymously published several more issues before graduation day.
Laws now considers this his first entrepreneurial experiment. “That guerrilla newspaper turned out to be as valuable as any class I took,” he says.
From Europe to Hollywood to AngelList
By senior year, Laws had years of coding under his belt—beginning when he was a middle-schooler and continuing in Dickinson's computer science department and through his mom’s educational software startup. After seeing a newspaper ad for a coding position at an Army contractor based in Germany, he applied for the position, sight unseen, eager to explore the world. When he arrived, his new boss was shocked to discover that this experienced new hire was so young. But soon enough, Laws was managing the organization’s tech-development team.
It was an electric time to be in tech, with breakthroughs arriving faster than anyone could predict. It was also a thrilling time to be in Germany, so soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall. When the first web browser—the government-developed NCSA Mosaic—was released, Laws was an early adopter. He even helped fix a few bugs.
Laws recognized that the internet was world-changing, but his bosses did not. Realizing the need for business professionals who understood technology, he flew back to the U.S. and enrolled in an MBA program at MIT, where he also taught classes. That led to high-level management and consulting for major Hollywood studios—and then, to the startup sphere.
“The most interesting people I work with rarely have perfect transcripts. They have interesting failures that they turn into success."
Laws identified and supported early-stage startups as a principal at PacRim Venture Partners. He also developed a platform to simplify online shopping. Then he joined AngelList, the revolutionary platform founded by Silicon Valley legend Naval Ravikant that matches startups with investors. Laws was AngelList’s CEO during its key period of exponential growth, cementing a series of successful partnerships with Ravikant.
Next stop: Oxford
Today, Laws invests in innovation more directly, by supporting early-stage startups, and he’s developed and sold an AI tool to help high-schoolers with their college searches.
While he enjoys learning about exciting new tech developments and finding talented people to support, he finds true joy in mentoring. Teaching is in his DNA, after all.
Recognizing his parents’ passion for education and their contributions to Dickinson, he and his sister Virginia—a Carlisle High School math teacher—dedicated a Tome Hall room in Kenneth and Priscilla’s honor. Virginia’s husband, David Jackson, is a professor of physics & astronomy at Dickinson.
In September, Laws will take his passion for teaching, mentoring and research to new heights, as an executive-in-residence at Oxford University.
Why smart risks—and mistakes—pay off
Laws is excited to embark on his next chapter in the U.K., researching and teaching at one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Asked what he’ll advise to young people with big dreams, Laws suggests that they think about how they might turn their passions into something valuable to others, and about whether they’d best serve that cause as creator or as one who helps others create it. Taking risks and exploration are key. Mistakes are inevitable—and ultimately helpful:
“The most interesting people I work with rarely have perfect transcripts,” he explains. "They have interesting failures that they somehow were clever and persistent enough to turn into a success."
Asked if he’d give his younger self that advice, Laws declines the bait. If he’d known then what he knows now, he wouldn’t have made the youthful mistakes that shaped him and his career. “I wouldn't have listened to my future self anyway,” he adds. “I try to remind myself of that when my children don't listen to me.”
Want to learn more about Kevin Laws '88's advice for the AI age? See "AI Q&A: Five Questions for the Road Ahead."
Read more about Dickinson alumni working in AI.
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published January 26, 2026