Nicole Komin and Danielle Shainbrown met while working in real estate law at McGuire Development, a family-owned commercial real estate company in Buffalo, New York. Danielle was Nicole’s direct supervisor at the time, and they immediately became close friends. Eventually, they began using their monthly one-on-ones to plan their exit in a secret notebook they called “The Escape Hatch.”
Their business plan covered everything from insurance, software, office layout, whether they would share a workspace, and even a comprehensive marketing plan.
“McGuire is a really great, family-owned company and we were doing some really great work, especially during COVID,” said Nicole. “But deep down, I always knew that the end goal wasn’t to work for somebody else. It was to work for myself.”
Danielle was the president of the real estate development company at the time, but Nicole knew they could create something unique together. She decided to run the idea by Danielle’s husband, who incidentally, was Nicole's dentist.
“That got the balling rolling, which has turned into something that I never would have expected,” said Nicole. “And things look very different from when we first started, but in the best way.”
Today, Nicole and Danielle run two firms in parallel out of Buffalo, New York: Bellwether Advisors, a real estate consulting practice, and Shainbrown Komin PLLC, a law firm. Between them, they have experienced every side of a real estate deal: developer, owner's rep, tenant, landlord, nonprofit, and charter school. In this conversation, Nicole and Danielle share their advice for starting a business with a solid plan and overcoming the fear of making a mistake.
“If you're not comfortable making mistakes, you're not challenging yourself," said Danielle.
How the Escape Hatch Notebook Became a Business Plan
Nicole’s path to entrepreneurship started in the ICU at Buffalo General Hospital, where she drafted living wills for terminal patients. Prior to that, she was a nursing school academic advisor. Eventually, after a phone call from a law school classmate, Nicole landed at McGuire as an owner’s representative. She didn’t really know what that meant initially, but she was excited about the idea of her work having a real impact on her city.
“Both of my parents are entrepreneurs,” Nicole said. “Deep down, I always knew I wanted to own something. What that was and who that was going to be with, I had no idea. And then I met Danielle, and all of a sudden things started clicking."
Danielle’s founder path began on an 18-hour flight on a C-130 cargo aircraft to Biloxi, Mississippi. At the time, Danielle was a commercial attorney with Rupp Pfalzgraf. Her firm had been invited to participate in a program called Boss Lift, a nonprofit associated with the US Air Force that helped place former servicemembers. Danielle’s boss didn’t have time to go to the event, so he sent Danielle to pitch the firm's legal services. Her conversation with McGuire’s president lasted only a few minutes.
Instead of putting the firm on retainer, McGuire called a few weeks later to offer Danielle a job. She spent the next eleven years in commercial real estate development, building McGuire’s owner's rep division, moving up to executive vice president, and eventually becoming president during the pandemic. Danielle kept her own business ideas private until the day Nicole mentioned her idea at that pivotal dental appointment.
"I formed an LLC and I just let it sit on a shelf for a couple of years,” Danielle said. “Nicole ran into my husband and said, confidentially, I'm out. My husband came home and said, ‘You're a chicken. This girl's got more confidence than you.’"
Finally, the escape hatch notebook was born. Danielle and Nicole began planning slowly and systematically, month by month. By the time they officially launched their new business in January 2022, they’d been preparing carefully for months.
What Real Estate Development Teaches a Lawyer
Most real estate attorneys focus solely on the fundamental clauses that might affect the sale: due diligence period, deposit structure, when the deposit goes hard, title, and survey requirements. Nicole and Danielle approach real estate contracts a little differently than most, because they know how those things can go awry from years on the other side.
As owner’s reps, their job was to know what the developer knew, translate it into something the client could act on, and make sure everyone was doing exactly what their contracts said. In construction and real estate, almost no one really understands their contracts, even after they have signed them.
"A typical real estate lawyer may get an LOI to turn into a purchase and sale agreement, and they know the terms they typically like to edit. We know what happens when those things blow up,” said Danielle.
Danielle and Nicole operate on a dual firm structure, running a law firm and a real estate consulting practice in parallel, because of their very specialized knowledge.
"We're almost like the wedding planner of a construction project,” jokes Nicole. “We stand side-by-side with the owner to figure out: do you need an architect? What type of contractor? Do the two contracts talk to each other? There are all these different areas that we learned while working for this developer that really help us in our roles as real estate attorneys."
They originally thought their consulting work would be the bread and butter, and the law firm would handle the overflow. Within the first year, it became clear that they were acting as attorneys about 70% of the time. The two entities exist separately and bill separately, but the knowledge base behind both is the same: they have been on every side of the table, and their clients feel that expertise immediately.
What Nobody Tells You About Becoming a Founder
Nicole quickly learned that owning a business means managing everything, from marketing to IT to billing, all at the same time. Nobody seems to mention this in conversations about early entrepreneurship, and it becomes a genuine time suck in ways that no amount of planning fully prepares you for.
“No one tells you that when you start your own business, you become an IT expert,” said Nicole. “When you work at different companies, there's someone you can pick up the phone and call. When you start a business, you don't have that."
Danielle’s biggest lesson from entrepreneurship is that there is no real emergency in their line of work. She knew this logically, but it took real time to internalize that as a business owner.
“Thankfully, we’re not in the life or death business, and so there really is no mistake that can’t be fixed,” she said. “I still live with what if all the business dries up tomorrow? We'll be okay. We'll figure something out. In 2022, I didn't feel that way. So it's all gonna be okay.”
The work has never disappeared, but getting used to the uncertainty of being their own bosses took longer than both women anticipated.
Note from Host Laurel Paulluzi: The feast or famine cycle of small firm life happens on a weekly timeline sometimes: panic on Monday, drowning in work by Wednesday. Danielle's fear about committing to someone's livelihood and failing is an honest fear most founders carry. It just takes time to learn to live with the ebb and flow of self-employment.
What Legal AI Replaced That a Paralegal Cannot
Before long, both firms were swamped with work. Nicole and Danielle were both working 15-hour days, handling everything themselves, and they knew it was unsustainable. Finally, they took the leap and hired a paralegal. It became clear very quickly that the hire was not a good fit. They parted ways and went back to working 15-hour days.
Then, a GC friend at a tech company mentioned GC AI to Nicole in passing. She had never heard of it, so she began asking questions. After exploring the in-house legal AI tool for free, Danielle and Nicole knew they had found the answer to their capacity issue.
The timing turned out to be perfect. GC AI had just launched its Microsoft Word integration. The paralegal they tried didn’t even know how to redline a document. GC AI began suggesting redlines in the very first session.
“We used to say GC AI saved us the salary of the paralegal, but it saved us the salary of maybe two full-time employees,” said Danielle. “We literally replaced a human who didn't know how to redline with AI that would suggest redlines right in our document. Life changing."
Their work backlog didn’t disappear overnight, but finally, they had momentum. The load became manageable, and GC AI allowed Danielle and Nicole to scale their own efforts in a way that wouldn’t lead to burnout.
The escape hatch, it turned out, was just the beginning. If you’re ready to extend your own productivity without adding headcount, try the legal AI in-house lawyers recommend to their friends.
