The origins of our startup aren’t glam or sexy like others you’ve probably heard about. We aren’t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren’t HBS grads looking to make headlines (although an occasional headline would be nice, we admit). We are a group of small business owners frustrated with our past experience with legal services professionals. One day, we decided to do something about it.
We intuitively knew that the idea behind LawyerFair, our legal service comparison website, was a winner. And we heard there were others out there who used lawyers and weren’t always thrilled by the experience. In addition, industry news and market research confirmed our view that change is rapidly becoming inevitable in the legal services market. With some market research and a hunch, we decided to act quickly and get our idea out into the market.
Within weeks of our initial idea, we launched. There were times when we were screaming, gasping for air, and hungry for food. Some Dunkin Donuts helped solve the latter problem, but after that we were off.
What is exciting about launching at a rapid pace is that we didn’t spend too much time pondering about what might and might not work. We’ve been using Eric Ries’ lean startup mentality, and it’s been working out well for us so far. We’re getting the core idea out and working with market feedback to shape our message and offerings. It hasn’t been too difficult, since we knew about the disconnect between SMEs and legal services from experiencing it ourselves. We also heard from industry news and market surveys that SMEs, in general, felt pretty grumpy with lawyers. And finally, we conducted our own pre-launch market research.
But until you’re out in the market, responding to people and managing real issues, it’s all theory and some questions remain.
- Have we pitched it right?
- Will the messaging work?
- Will the research mutate into activity?
It’s only when you launch that the answers start rolling in.
What’s the verdict after four months of LawyerFair?
We’ve experienced a combination of excitement, surprise, head scratching and very busy days. It has been the roller coaster ride one might expect when he or she is launching a new business.
We know from here that it’s as much about the execution as the idea. It’s about how we debate, deconstruct, and deliver, in response to what the market is telling us, that will make this project fly or die. Things are looking good so far. We’re building up a really talented panel of lawyers, and business owners are responding warmly to the competitive tendering process. Just yesterday, we received the kind of feedback that reassures us we’re heading in the right direction. Furthermore, we’re building a team who really cares about the service we’re delivering and the value it can add to business owners. That makes a huge difference, especially on the days when the phone doesn’t ring or the Dunkin Donuts run out…
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared here.