Developing Software for In-house Counsel
At Recital, we are developing software for in-house counsel specifically and leaving it to other companies to build tools for lawyers at law firms. This article is written by our CEO, Martin Ertl, about why we chose this focus.
Why are we developing software for in-house counsel? They have only one client, and they are often solely responsible for the decisions made by the in-house legal team and for the legal advice they provide. They are also more likely to use software tools to help them amplify their work output and might even be the ones responsible for selecting that software.
Starting a software company is challenging in many ways, and one of the most difficult decisions a founder has to make is what kind of customers to focus on.
For my part, I have to strike a balance. On the one hand, I have a grand vision of market disruption, where everyone wants to use your tool. On the other, I’m faced with the reality of being a startup that has to be selective about what we build for who — to have an impact now and establish traction.
From the beginning, we knew that Recital would focus on helping in-house counsel and contracts professionals with their contract negotiation needs. We also knew we would have to get more specific than that.
Solving the biggest problems first
Before starting software companies, I worked as a lawyer and in-house counsel. In a way, I’m solving problems that I experienced with that work. For in-house counsel, the challenge is always how to do more with less. It’s about becoming as efficient as possible and wherever you can, creating repeatable processes to save you time.
A large part of the work of in-house counsel is contract negotiation. As they are often lone wolves, they are responsible for their own contract processes, storage, naming conventions and more. They might be using tools and software that the company at large uses, but it falls to them to be responsible for their own contract management.
When the volume of work increases, this management becomes more arduous. With multiple in-flight deals and multiple sources of feedback from team members, and multiple contract versions, it can be difficult to keep up. This is the problem we chose to solve first. To give in-house counsel the info they need to manage those active deals. The correct contract versions, cued up for comparison. Changes from one version to the next, highlighted for easy reference. And all of the email communications about that deal close at hand so that changes can be carried out swiftly and nothing gets missed.
The specifics of why we are going about developing software for in-house counsel
I’ll spare you the details of all the market testing and customer discovery calls we have been having in the background, and I’ll say that what we realized is that the ideal Recital user has a certain persona:
– They like to use technology and understand the value that it brings to their work
– In-house counsel are also likely to be early adopters of new tools, in an effort to improve their work
– They deal with a high volume of contract negotiations, typically commercial contracts like sales agreements, MSAs, order forms, vendor agreements, NDAs and other similar agreements
– In-house counsel have a certain amount of decision-making power over their own toolset
Using this hypothesis, we’ve been testing our messaging and onboarding customers from a number of different verticals. The one vertical that has stood out as having all of these characteristics are companies in technology with 100-1,000 employees, a legal department of 1-10 staff, and perhaps an emerging legal operations function.
Assisting companies across multiple verticals
Can Recital help other types of companies? Yes, definitely. We have a large healthcare network as a customer, and a book publishing company and a few other customers in other verticals — and we have met their needs and security requirements.
As we continue to increase our traction, our marketing will focus on attracting more in-house counsel and contracts professionals at tech companies, so we can continue to collect constructive feedback and improve our product to their exacting expectations and needs.
If you know anyone — a company or in-house counsel, contracts manager, or legal ops professional that matches this description, put me in touch. The more we hear from these kinds of users, the better Recital will address their needs.
