Insights from chairing a lawtech incubator event
Very much enjoyed chairing the MDR Lab showcase event on 2 November 2022. The Lab has been a founding part of the UK lawtech ecosystem and their contribution is invaluable to its growth.
Standing room only at the event and a great, even intimate vibe. Compelling presentations from the showcase companies and particularly enjoyed chatting with investor Tom Wilson about all things market, plus seeing some of the forest as well as the trees as a collective.
Notable moments to share:
The absolute obviousness of many of these offerings now they have taken shape, and that as a positive indicator of where we are heading in legal sector innovation.
The associated ridiculousness of our current lived normal e.g. how is financial modelling (SettleIndex) not a core part of litigation strategy worldwide, and how is intelligibility in contracts (Amplified Global™) not baseline for consumer contracting?
Learning from the brilliant team at Amicable that family breakdown and the current adversarial system of divorce cost the UK tax payer £51bn - more than the defence budget. Is this not a completely different way of looking at the value and necessity of lawtech, acknowledging these are system movements as well as businesses.
Confirming that immediacy is going to be everything in transactions and knowledge management from here - structured data paves the way for that. And that risk category companies are the E the S and the G in ESG and this is only going to build.
Hearing from Orbital Witness about how far the Lab moved them on product strategy and market fit compared to where they started out in the 2017 cohort - you simply don’t do this innovation journey alone and watching them is seeing how far you can come with great support wrapped around a great team.
Clocking how many of the presenting companies have non-legal people at the helm and how much we need that diversity and direction.
Equally clocking how many founder stories involve actually pissed off people saying enough really is enough and I can do something about that - more of this can abound.
The wise reminder from Tom that venture capital will not be the right for all lawtechs, but if you are chasing venture, acknowledging it's all about 'painkillers not vitamins’ in the current economic climate - aka no nice to haves, which is great discipline if you ask me - and if you're B2C, don't even bother thinking venture until you have repeatable revenues.
The bomb that lawyer-founders may be missing out on raising series A/B simply because they don't know how/are afraid to go big on selling the future they see can be reality.
And sharing here what I said in wrap up, quoting Version Story:
“The dignity and importance of the law profession are besmirched by inadequate tools…. Technologists have abandoned the actual pillars of society like law and government to instead build newsfeeds that sell ads.”
Truth, no? Great, therefore, to feel momentum building in this space. It literally is all to play for.
