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I co-founded a legal startup, and a funded YC company pivoted into our exact space. We applied and never even received an interview. I once did a Show HN abou

I co-founded a legal startup, and a funded YC company pivoted into our exact space. We applied and never even received an interview. I once did a Show HN about it that made the front page and was immediately removed, upon an email to dang my post was reinstated and I even received a comment/review by a YC partner. The review was overall complimentary, included actionable critiques and even included reasons why he subjectively believe the YC company was ahead of mine. While the YC company raised well over $1M, the last available data shows their annual income was $80k, my startup was bootstrapped making well over 6 figures and ultimately I achieved a liquidation event.

lifeisstillgood 10y ago
Can you tell us what the startups did - "legal space" is very large and it's nice to know of successful bootstrap ideas - I think it helps me look out the window for my own
- will_brown 10y ago
  Imagine you get a speeding ticket and wanted to hire a lawyer to fight it (not exactly sure if traffic tickets in the UK what they are in the US...basically a tax on the populace). Here is the problem: to hire a lawyer, you must discuss your case with a human from the law firm who can evaluate the facts and generate a fee. In other words for a legal fee to be competitive you obviously can't charge the same for a seat belt ticket as a accident with a fatality. But, probably the real truth of the legal industry, especially tickets, is that fees are more often based on what they think a client can and will pay without calling another firm to compare prices. As far as I can tell this is why the YC company needed to raise funding, so they could hire a staff to evaluate the tickets, act as a middle man between potential client and the lawyer, and then deliver the fee/retain the client. My belief is they are trying to experiment with a single flat fee across a jurisdiction (i.e. $150 for any ticket in California), again a problem because not all cases are the same and such a model is not fair to the client or the lawyer. What we did was invent a business method to automatically calculate a legal fee for individual cases. Our method allowed clients to calculate their own fees (transparent pricing) and hire a lawyer 24/7 without the need for staff (automation).
  - lifeisstillgood 10y ago
    Perfect - thank you. There are probably a whole heap of legal and other bureaucratic areas open to this approach - will keep an eye out. Car park fines being one obvious one. Claiming for late train arrivals (seriously)
pewpewlasergun 10y ago
Was your post antagonistic towards the YC company or removed for an otherwise valid and transparent reason? If hacker news is removing posts by competitors, or giving their startup founders free range to remove posts I should probably start using it differently.
- will_brown 10y ago
  My Show HN post didn't mention the YC company, and the post was reinstated without any revisions of the post itself after I emailed dang.

lifeisstillgood 10y ago

Can you tell us what the startups did - "legal space" is very large and it's nice to know of successful bootstrap ideas - I think it helps me look out the window for my own

will_brown 10y ago
Imagine you get a speeding ticket and wanted to hire a lawyer to fight it (not exactly sure if traffic tickets in the UK what they are in the US...basically a tax on the populace). Here is the problem: to hire a lawyer, you must discuss your case with a human from the law firm who can evaluate the facts and generate a fee. In other words for a legal fee to be competitive you obviously can't charge the same for a seat belt ticket as a accident with a fatality. But, probably the real truth of the legal industry, especially tickets, is that fees are more often based on what they think a client can and will pay without calling another firm to compare prices. As far as I can tell this is why the YC company needed to raise funding, so they could hire a staff to evaluate the tickets, act as a middle man between potential client and the lawyer, and then deliver the fee/retain the client. My belief is they are trying to experiment with a single flat fee across a jurisdiction (i.e. $150 for any ticket in California), again a problem because not all cases are the same and such a model is not fair to the client or the lawyer. What we did was invent a business method to automatically calculate a legal fee for individual cases. Our method allowed clients to calculate their own fees (transparent pricing) and hire a lawyer 24/7 without the need for staff (automation).
- lifeisstillgood 10y ago
  Perfect - thank you. There are probably a whole heap of legal and other bureaucratic areas open to this approach - will keep an eye out. Car park fines being one obvious one. Claiming for late train arrivals (seriously)

pewpewlasergun 10y ago

Was your post antagonistic towards the YC company or removed for an otherwise valid and transparent reason? If hacker news is removing posts by competitors, or giving their startup founders free range to remove posts I should probably start using it differently.

will_brown 10y ago
My Show HN post didn't mention the YC company, and the post was reinstated without any revisions of the post itself after I emailed dang.