Startup Circle: How Legistify provides a comprehensive software solution to simplify legal operations for enterprises

Legistify is the fastest-growing legal technology company. Legistify provides comprehensive software to simplify legal operations for enterprises. Their intelligent and intuitive platform helps enterprises manage their legal contracts, cases, and IP and provides powerful data insights for effective decision-making. This cutting-edge solution is being used by over 300+ large enterprises across multiple countries and varied sectors. Legistify is building the next generation of legal technology by leveraging the powers of machine learning and generative AI, thereby empowering its end users in informed decision-making and increasing efficiency.

Akshat Singhal, Founder and CEO, of Legistify, a natural serial entrepreneur, initiated his first venture during his second year of college, securing a modest exit despite navigating a complex legal landscape. This experience ignited his passion for addressing the challenges faced by aspiring entrepreneurs and businesses in the legal realm. Motivated by a desire to offer transparent, affordable, and unencumbered legal services, Akshat leveraged his tech-savvy insights to establish Legistify. Through his journey, Akshat has gained profound insights into the legal business and the inner workings of the judicial system. With a dynamic team of young and ambitious individuals, he is steering Legistify to new heights.

In an exclusive interview with Ciol, Akshat Singhal, Founder and CEO, of Legistify, shared insights into the rapidly evolving landscape of Legal tech platforms and how Legistify is providing comprehensive software to simplify legal operations for enterprises.

Tell us about Legistify and your offerings.

It is a legal technology company, as you already know. Our primary focus is to offer a comprehensive software solution that enables companies to efficiently handle their legal operations. We specialize in managing and simplifying various aspects of legal operations, from the contract lifecycle to litigation management, IP management, and legal notice management. In essence, our goal is to assist companies in digitizing, streamlining, and simplifying their in-house legal operations through our platform.

Can you please tell us about the trends that are shaping legal tech in 2023?

In my journey, since I started to track the legal Tech and landscape which is 2011 odd, you know, we've gone through multiple shifts as as a sector. So, you know, if you look at the entire trend there have been three major aspects of transit that have happened sort of every five to seven-odd years keeping aside the first two trends, which was the basic introduction of the internet across lawyers and law firms to adoption of SAS for helping them digitize and streamline their work in the year 2023. We sit at the cusp of a much much bigger change with the advent of large language models and artificial intelligence. So 2023 or 2022 or how I see this the advent of artificial intelligence is a major market trend and has not done anything but just accelerate the entire adoption of SAS platforms over the past two or three years. So we're at a very interesting point at this point in terms of a sectoral change.

How is Legistify tapping these market trends for growth?

In my journey, starting from when I began tracking the legal tech landscape around 2011, we have witnessed several shifts in the sector. Examining the overall trend, three significant transitions have occurred approximately every five to seven years. Disregarding the initial trends, which marked the introduction of the internet to lawyers and law firms, and the subsequent adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) to aid in digitizing and streamlining work by 2023, we find ourselves on the brink of a much larger transformation.

The game-changer is the emergence of large language models and artificial intelligence. In 2023, or even looking back to 2022, the advent of artificial intelligence stands out as a major market trend. This has not only accelerated the adoption of SaaS platforms but has also marked a substantial shift in the legal tech landscape over the past two to three years. We currently find ourselves at a crucial and fascinating juncture, witnessing a notable change in the sector.

Did you possess any entrepreneurial mindset in the beginning?

It seems like the text is discussing the speaker's background in coming from a small business family in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The speaker expresses a fascination with the business side of things, particularly ignited during their second year at Bits Felony College. At that time, they began working on a company and an idea to scale up. This experience equipped them with the right tools for the journey they started at Logistify.

The speaker emphasizes their deep interest in building something independently, something of value and impact. They attribute the early development of the entrepreneurial spirit to their background and experiences.

When did the concept of launching that technology-driven legal tech platform first occur in your mind?

While recounting my experiences during my second year, I was concurrently employed at a different company where we encountered challenges in scaling up. Legal obstacles emerged, particularly concerning the retrieval of payments from our vendors and partners. It dawned on me that for aspiring entrepreneurs without access to robust legal counsel, managing such issues proves exceedingly challenging. This realization sparked the initial idea.

As I graduated in 2015-16, I engaged in conversations with lawyers, entrepreneurs, enterprises, smaller companies, and MSMEs. This dialogue revealed the profound nature of the problem: a severe lack of access to reliable legal advice. Subsequently, we embarked on our journey with Justify. Initially, we established a marketplace featuring lawyers, allowing regular consumers like you and me to book consultations based on the lawyer's profile and expertise.

Throughout the years, our commitment to integrating technology has been unwavering. We navigated through numerous ups and downs, experimented with various business models, and ultimately arrived at our current promising juncture.

How has your revenue grown with the brand evolving?

It proved to be quite intriguing for us. Despite the unfortunate circumstances of the pandemic, we experienced substantial growth during that period. Before the pandemic, our focus was primarily on handling litigation matters nationwide. We assisted businesses in identifying and engaging suitable lawyers at reasonable rates. However, as the pandemic unfolded, a realization dawned on everyone, especially the surprising fact that even in the 21st century, major enterprises lacked access to effective legal and technological tools for managing their legal operations.

This is where we entered the scene. The entire system was far from being digitized, and many large companies recognized the pressing need for a change, particularly as remote work became the norm. People discovered that not having a centralized, digital solution was a significant challenge. That's when our software came into play. Overall, we experienced remarkable growth, with our customer base increasing by over 250% and our revenue surging by more than 200% during that year. It marked a fantastic beginning for us, particularly considering that it coincided with the official launch of our software.

What has 2022 changed for you?

In 2022, I believe the most significant driver for us, or perhaps the largest one, is the advent of large language models and the accessibility of AI to the general public. We had previously experimented with smaller AI applications in 2020 and 2021, but particularly after 2022 and the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT and other similar large language models, everything has become much more accessible than before. This shift is not only applicable to us but also to many other businesses. I see this as a potential turning point, akin to the next iPhone moment, the next mobile moment, or even the next internet moment.

How are things now action?

Things have been going exceptionally well for us. We are currently collaborating with over 300 large enterprises nationwide. Recently, we revamped our product into a single, integrated solution. Internally, there's a strong focus on artificial intelligence, and we are consistently working on enhancing this aspect.

Additionally, we're experiencing growing interest from companies outside of India, which is a source of great excitement for us. Our current priority is to build for scale, and we aim to achieve this in 2024. While we are already working with a substantial number of companies, our goal is to capture a significant portion of the Indian enterprise market. Simultaneously, we have two key objectives in mind: first, to grow at scale and capture a substantial market share, and second, to create meaningful value for our customers through technology.

Our focus areas are twofold: one, to continue growing and attract more customers, helping them achieve their goals through our software. Two, to create something truly meaningful by leveraging advanced technology in our product, thereby adding even more value to our customers' work."