JusticeText, an MIT- and Google-backed startup, is building technology to improve criminal justice outcomes for low-income Americans. Today's guest is Devshi Mehrotra, JusticeText CEO and co-founder. She started this work when she was a computer science undergraduate at the University of Chicago, while the city was reeling from the death of Laquan McDonald. Devshi and co-founder Leslie Jones-Dove began their work helping public defenders better utilize large volumes of admissible video and audio data. Today, JusticeText is an audiovisual evidence management platform that expedites review of collective video and audio data with machine learning to support the work of public defenders.
Devshi talks to us about how falling in love with the problem helped her go against her natural risk aversion, how participating in startup programs and accelerators contributed to the success of JusticeText, and how she is building a strong company culture.