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Lawdingo (YC W13) Raises $690K More To Help You Talk To Lawyers Instantly

59 points by toddpersen 13y ago

codegeek 13y ago
I am not sure how different is this from a service like www.rocketlawyer.com which I tried using once and had a crappy experience. They tried to sign me up for a recurring subscription and claimed to have unlimited access to lawyers. But the lawyer I spoke to said that the unlimited access is limited to basic consultation only. Anything custom will cost you the usual lawyer money.
- tptacek 13y ago
  Starting point: Lawdingo isn't Rocketlawyer.
- rhc2104 13y ago
  Lawdingo does not have subscriptions for people looking for lawyers- you just pay the lawyer for time spent https://www.lawdingo.com/about/clients/phone-consultations https://www.lawdingo.com/about/clients/phone-consultations
  - codegeek 13y ago
    Thanks.
- nirmel 13y ago
  As others have said, we do not charge a subscription fee to consumers. We let lawyers offer free initial consultations and most do. You can choose to or to not work with the lawyers after that. All we do is make the whole discovery, communication and payments aspects much more efficient.
3327 13y ago
There are many services for many kinds... Not intention of putting you down but 'competition'. Some come later and just do it smoother better. Overall, lawyer experiences are hard and expensive and there is huge room for improvement so I wish these guys the best and I hope they can make some significant change.
- yogo 13y ago
  Very early in the article the author contrasted this service with LegalZoom, but the first thing that came to mind was something like Pearl.com. It's good when there's a service like this that's focusing on only one thing so I'm interested in seeing where this goes and how it fits into this space.
  - nirmel 13y ago
    Hi, I'm the founder. Another article came out today, in which the author talked about the comparison to Pearl: http://vator.tv/news/2013-10-30-lawdingo-raises-690k-to-help-you-find-a-lawyer http://vator.tv/news/2013-10-30-lawdingo-raises-690k-to-help... In general I think the narrow vertical approach makes more sense that the general purpose expert advice network. Legal is supposedly Pearl's largest vertical in every country around the world.
    - yogo 13y ago
      Thanks, this is a good article. I too like having a site that only focuses on legal. Legal is big enough and there isn't much of an overlap like you have with verticals like computer tech, electronics tech, car repair. Best of luck.
- cookiecaper 13y ago
  I'm excited about it. I've always had trouble tracking down good lawyers even for brief consultations. I'm available unusual hours and strongly prefer email over phone (which presents the next problem of encryption, and 100% of lawyers I've asked about this have been too good for it, one even saying "Don't worry, you aren't going to share any confidential information with me", neglecting that even the fact I had the problem I had should've been treated as confidential). I hope something like this can make it easy for someone like me to get legal help when necessary.

59 points by toddpersen 13y ago

I am not sure how different is this from a service like www.rocketlawyer.com which I tried using once and had a crappy experience. They tried to sign me up for a recurring subscription and claimed to have unlimited access to lawyers. But the lawyer I spoke to said that the unlimited access is limited to basic consultation only. Anything custom will cost you the usual lawyer money.

tptacek 13y ago
Starting point: Lawdingo isn't Rocketlawyer.
rhc2104 13y ago
Lawdingo does not have subscriptions for people looking for lawyers- you just pay the lawyer for time spent https://www.lawdingo.com/about/clients/phone-consultations https://www.lawdingo.com/about/clients/phone-consultations
- codegeek 13y ago
  Thanks.
nirmel 13y ago
As others have said, we do not charge a subscription fee to consumers. We let lawyers offer free initial consultations and most do. You can choose to or to not work with the lawyers after that. All we do is make the whole discovery, communication and payments aspects much more efficient.

3327 13y ago

There are many services for many kinds... Not intention of putting you down but 'competition'. Some come later and just do it smoother better. Overall, lawyer experiences are hard and expensive and there is huge room for improvement so I wish these guys the best and I hope they can make some significant change.

yogo 13y ago
Very early in the article the author contrasted this service with LegalZoom, but the first thing that came to mind was something like Pearl.com. It's good when there's a service like this that's focusing on only one thing so I'm interested in seeing where this goes and how it fits into this space.
- nirmel 13y ago
  Hi, I'm the founder. Another article came out today, in which the author talked about the comparison to Pearl: http://vator.tv/news/2013-10-30-lawdingo-raises-690k-to-help-you-find-a-lawyer http://vator.tv/news/2013-10-30-lawdingo-raises-690k-to-help... In general I think the narrow vertical approach makes more sense that the general purpose expert advice network. Legal is supposedly Pearl's largest vertical in every country around the world.
  - yogo 13y ago
    Thanks, this is a good article. I too like having a site that only focuses on legal. Legal is big enough and there isn't much of an overlap like you have with verticals like computer tech, electronics tech, car repair. Best of luck.
cookiecaper 13y ago
I'm excited about it. I've always had trouble tracking down good lawyers even for brief consultations. I'm available unusual hours and strongly prefer email over phone (which presents the next problem of encryption, and 100% of lawyers I've asked about this have been too good for it, one even saying "Don't worry, you aren't going to share any confidential information with me", neglecting that even the fact I had the problem I had should've been treated as confidential). I hope something like this can make it easy for someone like me to get legal help when necessary.