Apply To Y Combinator And Other Things I Tell Legal Innovators

The deadline is today!

A little while ago, I made an offer to ATL readers who wanted to get more involved in legal disruption — either by joining a legal start-up or building their own solution — to get in touch with me and I would help them take the next steps.

I am happy to report that I got a flurry of emails and various other communications from some really impressive lawyers who are ready to make the move and I’ve already begun connecting them with start-ups and/or developers who can help them get going with their big idea. This is a standing offer for all my readers and ReplyAll conversation followers: email me and we’ll set something up.

Now, as I’ve confessed before, I tend to repeat myself in conversations. It’s a habit from my old stand-up comedy days — when I find a routine that works, I stick with it. Here are a few things I’ve found myself telling people who are taking me up on my offer and getting in touch — so just in case you’re not a reach out by phone kinda bloke, here’s some of what I might tell you.

  1. If you’ve got a BIG IDEA to disrupt legal, apply to Y Combinator — you’re in luck the deadline is today and filling the application out takes about an hour. Y Combinator is the premier early stage investment fund in the world, but the reason you should apply is that they’ve funded many of the hottest legal technology companies in the valley, including Ironclad, SimpleLegal, Casetext, ROSS among others. Credit for that success is due in part to former Wilson Sonsini attorneys turned Y Combinator partners Jon and Carolynn Levy who have proven capable of consistently vetting top legal start-ups at the earliest stage. If Y Combinator wants to meet you after reading your application, there’s a good chance you’re onto something BIG. But, even if they don’t want to meet you, there is nothing to lose by filling out the application. In fact, I’ve found that filling out their application is a great shortcut for writing a business plan. Their questions are probing and, if you can’t answer them with confidence, it’s something of a red flag for your business idea. Y Combinator encourages teams to apply again even if they’ve been rejected before, so there’s nothing to lose
  2. Y Combinator related, follow the companies that are coming out of Y Combinator. These are companies that are positioned for success moving forward and the kind you want to work for, especially if you’re thinking about making the jump from law to disruptive legal. Get to know them and see if there are any that are right for your firm or practice. You should do this with any legal start-up I write about (I vet my subjects carefully as well) but following Y Combinator companies is a good shortcut.
  3. Let me explain what I mean when I say “get to know these companies.” Unlike when you apply the law firms and they all had websites that basically made them look the same so that all you had to do was say “I’m not sure whether I want to be in corporate or in litigation so I’m gonna rotate through both.” Disruptive legal companies are all very different from one another and, unlike law firms, they’ve got no quotas for number of attorneys to hire. The reason they want you is that sometimes the best person to sell to lawyer is, not a Silicon Valley sales bro like Jan the Man, but another lawyer.  We lawyers speak the same language as each other and we can sympathize with the pain points.  So when you “get to know these companies” you’ve got to understand not only why they’re disruptive but where you specifically can add value. If, for instance, they sell their products to in-house counsels, then you should be able to identify 5 to 10 of your corporate clients for whom this solution would be a real game changer. Otherwise you bring nothing to the table AND you’ve got no sales experience.

As I get better helping more lawyers make the move I’ll continue to post my advice here. Want to hear me in person? Email me and we’ll set up a 15-20 minute call.


Zach Abramowitz is a former Biglaw associate and currently CEO and co-founder of ReplyAll. You can follow Zach on Twitter (@zachabramowitz) or reach him by email at zach@replyall.me.

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