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File Notes

Hunter Steele on Why He Built Smokeball for Small Law

Mar 16, 2025
48:26

Hunter Steele grew up surrounded by small law. Now, as the founder and CEO of Smokeball, he’s built a legal tech company that helps small firms get more work done in less time.

From his early days shadowing his father in a three-person law firm to knocking on doors in Naperville, Illinois, Hunter shares the journey of how Smokeball found product-market fit, expanded across three countries, and became one of the most popular practice management systems in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K.

We cover:

  • How growing up in his Dad's small-town law firm shaped his vision for Smokeball
  • How Smokeball got its first client in the U.S.
  • Why small law firms struggle with running a business and how technology helps
  • What it takes to launch and scale a legal tech company across different regions
  • The surprising success of Smokeball’s AI assistant, Archie
  • The biggest lessons from leading a fast-growing legal tech company
  • Why small law firms should be billing more for the work they do

Whether you're building a legal tech company, running a small law firm, or interested in how great businesses are built, this episode is for you.


This episode is brought to you by VXT, the phone system built for law firms.

Connect VXT to your practice management system (like Smokeball), to sync your contacts, record time and automatically save AI phone transcripts and summaries to the right matter.

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