Author: Gloria Qiao, Founder & CEO of Trusli

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We have written a lot about AI and technology for lawyers.  Many of the readers may ask: why you? Why do you believe that you are uniquely positioned to lead technology for lawyers, build lawyer tools, and even for others like in-house departments of tech companies?  And if you are qualified, how will you do so differently from others?  Here are some thoughts.

1. We lived the pain 

Before I started working in tech, I was a very unhappy lawyer for many years. During my career at Davis Polk and Kirkland, I used to stare at my screen and wonder why I was repeatedly inputting the same phrase in an entire document, only to make mistakes that later on the partner will yell me at.  There were days when I was sent to conduct “due diligence”, where I sat in a room with thousands of paper documents and my mission was to take notes.  I remember this experience almost took all joy out of my life. 

Many years later, when Charlotte Tao and I started working together building self-driving cars, I couldn’t help but wonder, if cars can drive themselves, why are lawyers still repeating the same act of drafting a document or managing a deal?  Why couldn’t we extract all the repeated tasks, teach an algorithm how to do it, and then the lawyers just need to click a button, and voila! Here the documents are.  This is what inspired us to build Trusli. 

2. We really know software 

So, I am a lawyer or was. What makes me believe that we can build awesome software? 

Because I spent many years and tens of millions buying them, implementing them, and improving them. 

My prior career, before founding Trusli, was as a procurement executive at tech companies, ranging from large tech companies such as Apple and Samsung to startups such as NIO, GM Cruise, Zoox, and Motional. 

I’ve bought them all.  Engineering software such as chip design software, CAE, simulation, mapping, and data management.  Enterprise software ranging from HRIS, CRM, PLM, and CLM.  More importantly, I’ve been through several painful ERP implementation projects and know exactly how all these software should or can be tied together, or broken.  I’ve seen the latest and greatest in machine learning, RPA, intelligent automation, and beyond. 

My co-founder Charlotte started her career as a data scientist.  She then became a product manager building advanced machine learning products for self-driving car companies such as Zoox and Lyft.  

If anyone gets the software, it’s us.  We’ve seen the best, used the best, and designed the best. 

3. We get machine learning and data 

Well, anyone can build a piece of software. What makes us so special? 

In addition to our deep knowledge in legal, procurement, and enterprise software overall, we also come from self-driving cars. 

Our approach to using machine learning to automate workflows and processes derives from self-driving cars.  In self-driving cars, you first have a car drive around to gather data. You then annotate the data and teach the car what it should or should not do.  In addition, you can simulate this data.  Finally, you improve the car’s behavior by tagging what was right and what was wrong when it did the last time. 

We intend to do exactly the same with process automation.  We first learn about your current processes. We then deploy the algorithm to learn your preferred behavior.  We can also simulate scenarios so that the learning is more complete.  Finally, when deployed, the algorithm can also self-improve if you provide feedback. 

If a process is predictable and repeatable, we can automate it, be it filling out a form, following certain steps, pulling out precedents and filing in preferred terms, to calendaring and even billing for law firms. 

Our background in machine learning and data makes us uniquely qualified to take this novel approach to process automation. We have a patent pending on this approach. 

4. We put our users first, we listen and will custom build a solution that users love 

We have constantly talked about our values, and empathy is one of them.  Instead of imagining a solution or solving a hypothetical problem, we listen to our users and put their needs first. 

Our current customers came to us because they had a problem.  For example, our friends at Magstone were spending hours filling out the same forms.  We rolled up our sleeves, examined their current processes, and quickly designed a solution for them, and before you know it, now they just need to click a button and the forms fill themselves. 

We also want to make our solution simple and elegant.  Solutions are complicated because not enough thought is put into designing them.  We beg to differ.  We will provide you with a simple solution that gets you from point A to point B.  No coding.  No convoluted implementation.  No installation.  Our solution is intuitive and it just works. 

5. We are cost-effective and agile, we act fast, and we are here to help you win 

That’s all great, but how long will this take, and will this break the bank?  Well, you are in luck.  Because we are still in an early stage, we are looking for design partners like you and will custom-build you a solution that fits your needs at a fraction of a big software company’s cost. 

You will get an all-star team including myself, founder and CEO, and Charlotte, co-founder, and CTO.  We will personally attend all the technical sessions to ensure we meet your needs. We turn things around in days, if not hours.  We are used to pushing out solutions at highly functional and agile startups and we work the same way, maybe even better.  

If you want to be one of the best tech law firms or the best in-house legal department for tech companies, and deploy the newest software for managing technology for lawyers, you are in luck.  We are here to help.  Ultimately, technology for lawyers needs to help increase the top line and reduce the bottom line, with the ultimate goal of increasing productivity and efficiency.  That’s what we are building for you.  If you are a firm with technology lawyers or a tech company with a forward-thinking legal team and want to interact with one of the best legal tech startups to improve your lawyer technology, let’s connect. 

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