YC
AI and the Future of Law: The 10 Year "Overnight" Success Story
@ Y Combinator
11/16/23
Takeaways
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
I'm Jake Heller, co-founder of Casetext, which sold for $650 million earlier this year, marking a significant win in AI.
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
Casetext reduces weeks of painstaking legal work down to just minutes, transforming the legal landscape.
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
I had a traditional legal career, practicing law at a big law firm and even interning at Obama's White House, where I saw the potential for technology to improve legal processes.
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
During my legal career, I often found myself searching for critical information at 2 a.m. to support cases, highlighting the disconnect between the ease of finding trivial information and the difficulty of accessing vital legal data.
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
We started Casetext as a crowdsourced case law library, where users could edit and annotate legal documents, similar to a Wikipedia for law.
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
From 2013 to 2023, we experienced a 10-year overnight success, culminating in a $650 million sale, which reflects the long journey of building a truly amazing product.
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
We initially focused on large law firms, but learned that not all firms are ready to adopt new technology quickly, leading us to pivot towards smaller firms that found significant value in AI.
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
After gaining early access to GPT-4, we developed a groundbreaking product that allowed us to add millions of dollars in revenue monthly, demonstrating the transformative power of AI in legal work.
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Jake Heller
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
With the advancements in AI, we created an assistant that enables lawyers to delegate complex legal tasks efficiently, significantly speeding up their workflow.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
The 'golden demo' is crucial for large language model-based startups, as it quickly demonstrates value to potential customers, leading them to sign contracts immediately.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
In a compelling demo, we can analyze real cases with actual data, showing how AI can instantly identify potential fraud by flagging relevant emails and messages.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
The AI's ability to detect sarcasm in communications, such as jokes about hiding assets, can highlight critical evidence for lawyers.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
A successful demo can compress several days of legal work into minutes, illustrating how AI can significantly enhance a lawyer's efficiency.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
Casetext's success stems from their grit and determination, as well as their ability to align their product development with customer needs.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
Transforming raw AI models into usable products for lawyers involves significant work, including filtering relevant documents from vast amounts of data.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
GPT technology is underhyped; its capabilities in reading, understanding, and processing legal documents can revolutionize the industry.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
The California Innocence Project faces a backlog of cases due to the overwhelming amount of documentation that must be reviewed, which AI can help expedite.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
AI technology can drastically reduce the time needed to evaluate legal cases, potentially transforming the justice process for those awaiting exoneration.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
The current landscape presents a unique opportunity for startups to leverage AI technology, similar to the rise of cloud computing.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
Now is an ideal time to start a company, as the potential for innovation with AI technology is vast and largely untapped.
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Y Combinator Cast
11/16/23
@ Y Combinator
Casetext represents a significant success story in AI, showcasing the potential for future advancements in the legal field.