Today’s guest is taking on the challenges of immigration law through innovative technology. Amélie Vavrovsky is the founder and CEO of Formally, a legal tech startup that uses accessible design to simplify and streamline immigration applications. The idea for the company was partly inspired by Amélie’s own immigration experience as an international student at Brown University. She started Formally as a hackathon project, geared toward helping refugees and asylum seekers immigrate into the US. While a grad student at Stanford, Amélie further developed Formally, and the company officially launched in November of 2021. In recognition of the important work she is doing at Formally, Amélie was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list earlier this year.
In our conversation, Amélie discusses competing in hackathons, the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, Formally's approach to making legal work easier, and her surprising reaction to being included in the 30 Under 30.