Jake Heller, co-founder of Casetext, shares the 10-year journey of their 'overnight' success story in the legal industry. The podcast covers challenges in integrating technology, using AI to catch fraud, power of magic demos, and the potential of AI in revolutionizing the legal profession.
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Quick takeaways
Casetext evolved from a crowdsourced law library to an AI-powered platform that revolutionizes the legal profession by reducing weeks of work into minutes.
The success of Casetext is attributed to the development of their mega product, co-counsel, using large language models like GPT3 and GPT4, showcasing the immense potential of AI in various industries.
Deep dives
Building a Legal Tech Solution
Jake Heller co-founded Case Text, a legal tech company that uses AI to reduce weeks of legal work into minutes. Recognizing the need for technology in the legal profession, Jake embarked on a journey to create a platform that provides lawyers with the best access to modern technology. Case Text started as a crowdsourced case law library and evolved to incorporate early versions of natural language processing. After a decade of iterations and some missteps, they achieved product-market fit with their breakthrough product, co-counsel.
The Power of Large Language Models
The advent of large language models like GPT3 and GPT4 proved instrumental in Case Text's success. These models allowed the company to develop their mega product, co-counsel, which significantly speeds up legal processes. The ability to review thousands of documents, find relevant information, and conduct research at a superhuman speed revolutionized the legal profession. The impact of large language models goes beyond legal work and offers immense potential in various industries, with the ability to compress the work of numerous individuals and deliver equivalent or superior outcomes.
The Future of AI and Startup Opportunities
Case Text's success is a testament to grit, determination, and the ability to link customer outcomes with the products they built. As large language models continue to advance, opportunities for startups to tap into their capabilities and create tooling and developer solutions will flourish. An ecosystem similar to cloud computing will emerge, with a base layer of language models and additional layers of supporting technologies and applications. It is an exciting time to start a company and explore the vast possibilities that AI and large language models offer.
Casetext started out in 2013 as a crowdsourced law library — a sort of “Wikipedia meets Reddit” for the law. Ten years later, Casetext is one of the biggest wins to date in AI, capable of turning weeks of arduous legal work into hours or minutes. Just months ago it was acquired for $650 million dollars.
What happened between those two points?
For this episode of Main Function, YC President Garry Tan sits down with Casetext co-founder Jake Heller to learn the real story of their 10-year “overnight” success: the 3 a.m. origin story, how the company evolved as fast as tech would allow, and the “magic demo” that helped turn Casetext into a rocket ship.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/MainFunction-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/MainFunction-jobs
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