{"id":130485,"date":"2025-08-14T15:01:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T23:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/14\/want-to-be-a-successful-legal-tech-startup-just-do-one-thing\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T15:01:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T23:01:47","slug":"want-to-be-a-successful-legal-tech-startup-just-do-one-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/14\/want-to-be-a-successful-legal-tech-startup-just-do-one-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Want To Be A Successful Legal Tech Startup? Just Do One Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of my many meetings this week at ILTA\u2019s super conference, I bumped into Alex Babin<\/a>, whose company I have written about<\/a> before. Babin, who recently sold his company, Hercules<\/a>, to Aderant<\/a>, made an important point. If you want to be a successful startup in legal or elsewhere, you have to focus on one thing and only one thing. You can\u2019t divert your time and energies trying to launch two, three, or four products at the same time. It just won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

I thought about this as I strolled through the exhibit hall and talked to various vendors, some of whom were startups and some of whom were \u201cused to be\u201d startups that are now mainstream. The mainstream ones did exactly what Babin said. Unlike their larger brethren, they offered products that were designed for a singular purpose in niche areas where the bigger players may not be.<\/p>\n

ModeOne<\/strong><\/p>\n

A prime example is ModeOne<\/a>, which focuses almost exclusively on the collection of data from mobile devices. I first bumped into ModeOne back in 2022. ModeOne and its\u00a0 founder and CEO, Matthew Rasmussen<\/a>, have built a successful business by being laser focused. When I asked Rasmussen this year what\u2019s next for ModeOne, he made an interesting comment: \u201cWe can broaden our bench with different products, or we can deepen our bench and just be a specialized company. So, we\u2019re really going to dig deep on just the phone kind of stuff.\u201d Babin couldn\u2019t have put it any better.<\/p>\n

ActiveNav<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another vendor, ActiveNav<\/a>, has taken a similar approach. ActiveNav\u2019s one thing is data governance for and in law firms. Law firms present special governance problems and ActiveNav knows this. They know the territory, they know the culture, and they know how to help firms solve unique governance problems.<\/p>\n

Tavrn<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

I thought about all this when I got an invite and a demo from a startup company called Tavrn<\/a>. Tavrn was founded by Pedro Paulino<\/a>, a Harvard-educated engineer. Paulino worked for a time in the health field and became interested in the intersection of law and medicine where personal injury lawyers (plaintiffs\u2019 and defense) live and work.<\/p>\n

Tavrn is singulary focused on PI work. Their flagship product is something called Medical Chronologies. A user inputs all the medical records in a case and the tool then prepares a chronology with links to the relevant records including such things as pure medical records and billing records, pain journals and the like.<\/p>\n

According to Paulino, the tool separates out the records relevant to the case but does not include the irrelevant stuff that may also be there. As Kevin Silvergold<\/a>, Tavrn Founding Engineer, put it, the chronology is essentially a timeline view of the case in a significantly reduced format. The idea, says Paulino, is to deal with records for legal purposes, not medical purposes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In addition, according to Paulino, the tool will automate the collection of medical records once an authorization is received. One of the big problems I recall about medical record collection was the need to constantly badger the facilities holding the records to provide them. This usually took multiple requests and was time consuming. Tavrn completely automates this function.<\/p>\n

In addition, the tool can review the medical records and spit out a demand letter in 10-30 minutes. It calculates the charges only for the medical work relevant to the case. This is helpful to plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers but also to lawyers representing entities who are seeking subrogation for medical charges they have paid as well. It can be helpful to those on the defense side who also must routinely evaluate medical records to assess exposure and prepare both liability and damage defenses.<\/p>\n

The Tavrn suite of products can also automate the review of standard documents such as those produced as eDiscovery. According to Silvergold, the AI tool can understand the context and nuances of the documents as it runs searches across the whole database. You can create subject tags for search purposes as well and the tools will apply those tags to every single document to answer the query. Like most good AI platforms, it cites back to the found documents.<\/p>\n

Tavrn is three years old, and this is its first time at the ILTA conference.<\/p>\n

Tavrn\u2019s Key Value<\/strong><\/p>\n

Particularly for plaintiff lawyers, this tool can short circuit a lot of work. Since most plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers work on a contingency basis, they have to gauge the amount of work needed to get to resolution. Often, the amount of human work required will result in them not taking the case since the cost may exceed the benefit.<\/p>\n

But with tools like Tavrn offers, the amount of work can be reduced. The analysis shifts toward taking the work rather than not. As I have discussed before,<\/a> the result is more cases being filed and greater access to justice for many.<\/p>\n

Good Luck<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s something special about companies that have a laser focus on an area. Over time, I have noticed that startups that focus on one thing succeed more than those who try to do too much. Often these successful startups are either bought up by the behemoths of the legal tech world or gradually grow and branch out after they get off the ground with a singular product. Either way, the result is new product that helps a specific practice group. I admire their creativity and hard work.<\/p>\n

Good luck to the Tavrns of the world.<\/p>\n

\n

Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and writer. He publishes\u00a0TechLaw Crossroads<\/a>, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The post Want To Be A Successful Legal Tech Startup? Just Do One Thing<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In one of my many meetings this week at ILTA\u2019s super conference, I bumped into Alex Babin<\/a>, whose company I have written about<\/a> before. Babin, who recently sold his company, Hercules<\/a>, to Aderant<\/a>, made an important point. If you want to be a successful startup in legal or elsewhere, you have to focus on one thing and only one thing. You can\u2019t divert your time and energies trying to launch two, three, or four products at the same time. It just won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

I thought about this as I strolled through the exhibit hall and talked to various vendors, some of whom were startups and some of whom were \u201cused to be\u201d startups that are now mainstream. The mainstream ones did exactly what Babin said. Unlike their larger brethren, they offered products that were designed for a singular purpose in niche areas where the bigger players may not be.<\/p>\n

ModeOne<\/strong><\/p>\n

A prime example is ModeOne<\/a>, which focuses almost exclusively on the collection of data from mobile devices. I first bumped into ModeOne back in 2022. ModeOne and its\u00a0 founder and CEO, Matthew Rasmussen<\/a>, have built a successful business by being laser focused. When I asked Rasmussen this year what\u2019s next for ModeOne, he made an interesting comment: \u201cWe can broaden our bench with different products, or we can deepen our bench and just be a specialized company. So, we\u2019re really going to dig deep on just the phone kind of stuff.\u201d Babin couldn\u2019t have put it any better.<\/p>\n

ActiveNav<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another vendor, ActiveNav<\/a>, has taken a similar approach. ActiveNav\u2019s one thing is data governance for and in law firms. Law firms present special governance problems and ActiveNav knows this. They know the territory, they know the culture, and they know how to help firms solve unique governance problems.<\/p>\n

Tavrn<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

I thought about all this when I got an invite and a demo from a startup company called Tavrn<\/a>. Tavrn was founded by Pedro Paulino<\/a>, a Harvard-educated engineer. Paulino worked for a time in the health field and became interested in the intersection of law and medicine where personal injury lawyers (plaintiffs\u2019 and defense) live and work.<\/p>\n

Tavrn is singulary focused on PI work. Their flagship product is something called Medical Chronologies. A user inputs all the medical records in a case and the tool then prepares a chronology with links to the relevant records including such things as pure medical records and billing records, pain journals and the like.<\/p>\n

According to Paulino, the tool separates out the records relevant to the case but does not include the irrelevant stuff that may also be there. As Kevin Silvergold<\/a>, Tavrn Founding Engineer, put it, the chronology is essentially a timeline view of the case in a significantly reduced format. The idea, says Paulino, is to deal with records for legal purposes, not medical purposes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In addition, according to Paulino, the tool will automate the collection of medical records once an authorization is received. One of the big problems I recall about medical record collection was the need to constantly badger the facilities holding the records to provide them. This usually took multiple requests and was time consuming. Tavrn completely automates this function.<\/p>\n

In addition, the tool can review the medical records and spit out a demand letter in 10-30 minutes. It calculates the charges only for the medical work relevant to the case. This is helpful to plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers but also to lawyers representing entities who are seeking subrogation for medical charges they have paid as well. It can be helpful to those on the defense side who also must routinely evaluate medical records to assess exposure and prepare both liability and damage defenses.<\/p>\n

The Tavrn suite of products can also automate the review of standard documents such as those produced as eDiscovery. According to Silvergold, the AI tool can understand the context and nuances of the documents as it runs searches across the whole database. You can create subject tags for search purposes as well and the tools will apply those tags to every single document to answer the query. Like most good AI platforms, it cites back to the found documents.<\/p>\n

Tavrn is three years old, and this is its first time at the ILTA conference.<\/p>\n

Tavrn\u2019s Key Value<\/strong><\/p>\n

Particularly for plaintiff lawyers, this tool can short circuit a lot of work. Since most plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers work on a contingency basis, they have to gauge the amount of work needed to get to resolution. Often, the amount of human work required will result in them not taking the case since the cost may exceed the benefit.<\/p>\n

But with tools like Tavrn offers, the amount of work can be reduced. The analysis shifts toward taking the work rather than not. As I have discussed before,<\/a> the result is more cases being filed and greater access to justice for many.<\/p>\n

Good Luck<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s something special about companies that have a laser focus on an area. Over time, I have noticed that startups that focus on one thing succeed more than those who try to do too much. Often these successful startups are either bought up by the behemoths of the legal tech world or gradually grow and branch out after they get off the ground with a singular product. Either way, the result is new product that helps a specific practice group. I admire their creativity and hard work.<\/p>\n

Good luck to the Tavrns of the world.<\/p>\n

\n

Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and writer. He publishes\u00a0TechLaw Crossroads<\/a>, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The post Want To Be A Successful Legal Tech Startup? Just Do One Thing<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In one of my many meetings this week at ILTA\u2019s super conference, I bumped into Alex Babin, whose company I have written about before. Babin, who recently sold his company, Hercules, to Aderant, made an important point. If you want to be a successful startup in legal or elsewhere, you have to focus on one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}