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‘I really wanted to be involved building something new,’ says Gates Scholarship alumni Ben Gross, on the appeal of his role at controversial internet start-up company Genius (formerly Rap Genius). Becoming the business’s first general counsel at such an early stage in his career has, he admits, been a steep learning curve. ‘It’s a challenge every day,’ Gross says. ‘I’ve learned so much more in last nine months than I’ve learned doing anything else. It’s important not to be too intimidated by things you’ve never seen before’. Originally focused on rap music, the online knowledgebase allows users to provide annotations and interpretations of song lyrics, news stories, poetry, and other text. ‘The biggest thing was getting to the point where we’re essentially fully licensed,’ Gross says, on the legal obstacles. ‘Ben continually impresses in his deal negotiations,’ says one private practice source.