Kristina Jones -Part 2

Terri continues her conversation with Kristina Jones of Court Buddy about coming out to California to be a part of 500 Startups, raising their round, how excited they are about growing the business, learning she doesn’t need to get permission to do what she needs to do, and how this is all impacting the way she is raising her daughter.   

Who is Kristina Jones? 

Court Buddy President and Co-founder Kristina Jones is a Los Angeles native and a Florida International graduate for both her Undergraduate and Master’s degree from The School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Kristina’s Master’s Degree from FIU was in tandem with Miami Ad School’s Art Direction Portfolio Program.  

As an Art Director, Kristina went on to work for Advertising Agencies in both California and Florida and had the honor of creating campaigns for San Diego Tourism, Disney, Greater Fort Lauderdale Tourism, SeaWorld, Walmart, Silver Airways, and Kaplan University to name a few. Kristina’s experience with these brands has allowed her to see how media and advertising effect the sales and growth of major corporations.  

Kristina was able to take the experience creating content for other brands to help her create her own brand Court Buddy with her husband James Jones Jr. Esq. Court Buddy’s website, courtbuddy.com, matches people with attorneys based on their budget. Court Buddy is helping to bring the legal system to people who previously did not have access to it. Kristina handles the company’s advertising, marketing and social media.  

Show Highlights 

• They had a great experience with 500 Startups and learned to split their time and how to successfully fundraise including introductions to investors 
• There is a lot to be learned by going through the process even if it gets you to a ‘no’ 
• Terri asks about whether they had trouble fundraising because they were a husband and wife team 
• They got validation from investors writing the first checks which helped get them complete their fundraising; some investors needed to see others say ‘yes’ for 
• Kristina talks about some of their biggest challenges in growing the company and supporting the clients 
• Kristina talks about what she is excited about in hiring people, growing into all 50 states and expanding opportunities within their customer base 
• She felt like she needed permission when they started the business and she has learned to just do it 
• Starting and growing Court Buddy has impacted the way she is raising her daughter and she is making sure that her daughter knows that she can set her own path and do whatever she sets her mind to 

• If Kristina could wave a magic wand, she would make it so that people don’t see color and make it so that people aren’t judged based on the color of their skin 

  Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Asking for what we want and need means we will hear no and we need to get comfortable with this to get to the yeses.   

Contact 

Kristina can be reached at [email protected].  Check out Court Buddy at https://www.courtbuddy.com/.   

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.  

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected]. 

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.