Jelani Roy's Game Change

When Jelani Roy, 30, graduated from law school at Temple University in 2009, the sports-law practice at Dewey & LeBoeuf gave him the option to take a year off or start as an associate. He opted for the former. During a trip to Buenos Aires, he got a call from a basketball player named Roy Bright who was looking for legal representation overseas. Roy brokered a deal between Bright and Baerum Basket, a team in Norway. Soon after, other basketball players came knocking, and Roy accumulated a client roster of half a dozen. “I enjoyed it,” he says. “But I was always up in the middle of the night waiting to hear back from e-mails.”

Then a college friend named Mateen Aini told him about his idea for a company called Plyfe that would create games, from trivia to animated challenges, for brands, which would reward players with prizes—a trip to Las Vegas, say, or an iPad. Roy ditched his law career in January and joined the startup as part game developer, part client manager. “I’m dealing with technology,” he says. “I have to know what we’re doing, and how to explain it for the brand. It’s creative. I help the brand make the game.”