Legal Karma Profile
Last Updated: By TRUiC Team
Legal Karma is a legal tech startup offering a contract automation software solution for law firms, software companies, and in-house counsel.
Founder(s): Kory Kelly, Mauricio Cano
Founded In: 2021
Industry: Legal Tech
Location: Austin, Texas
Website: https://www.legalkarma.io/
Interview With Kory Kelly
Describe your product or service:
“We help law firms, software companies, and in-house counsel build better template libraries with contract automation software.”
Describe your company values and mission:
“Starting with law firms, we're increasing access to legal services by helping legal teams add new revenue streams to their practices by automating complex contracts.”
How are you funded? I.e. type of funding, number of funding rounds, total funding amount.
“We've raised $600,000 of pre-seed money.”
How big is your team? Tell us a little about them!
“Eight people so far. Our CTO Mauricio was an AI engineer for the Air Force, and our product lead was the original chief architect of Mac OS (literally built it with Jobs and Wozniak). His last company was acquired for $500 million. Other engineers are Austin/CDMX-based. We're currently hiring a sales team.”
How did you come up with and validate your startup idea? Tell us the story!
“The first time I heard that legal products were growing faster than the AMLAW 100, I thought to myself, ‘what if I built the legal product builder.’ Turns out it was a pretty good bet. Now we're serving up things like ‘Divorce as an API,’ ‘Trusts and Wills as an API’ — pretty cool stuff.”
How did you come up with your startup's name? Did you have other names you considered?
“‘Legal Karma’ was always the name. It just said ‘good will’ and ‘legal,’ plus it's catchy.”
Did you always want to start your own business? What made you want to become an entrepreneur?
“I never saw myself as an entrepreneur to tell you the truth and still have a lot of imposter syndrome. After many clients at my last company asking if I was the owner, I finally got it in my head that I could be.”
What was the biggest obstacle you encountered while launching your company? How did you overcome it?
“Fundraising hands down. It's messy and weird and actually sucks in Austin. I overcame it by using automation software and reaching outside of Austin for investments.”
Feeling inspired? Learn how to launch your company with our guide on how to start a startup.
Who is your target market? How did you establish the right market for your startup?
“Mid-market transactional law firms or CFOs of mid-market companies. Essentially anyone who has high legal / contract ops costs.”
What's your primary marketing strategy?
“Outbound, baby!”
How did you acquire your first 100 customers?
“WOM/Outbound”
What are the key customer metrics / unit economics / KPIs you pay attention to to monitor the health of your business?
“Number of documents drafted per week, number of logins per week.”
What's your favorite startup book and podcast?
“‘The Lean Startup’ [by Eric Ries] and ‘Early Days’ by Antler VC.”
What is a song or artist that you listen to for motivation?
“Hamilton.”
Is there a tool, app, or resource that you swear by to help run your startup?
“Phantom Buster.”
What is something that surprised you about entrepreneurship?
“It's not about highs or lows, it's about showing up consistently every day.”
How do you achieve work/life balance as a founder?
“I always break on the weekend.”
When did you know it was time to quit your day job to focus on your startup?
“I could never get behind the idea of putting my oar in the water for someone else's dream, finding entrepreneurship was more like coming home I guess.”
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