Ep 025 Interview with Chris Draper, founder and CEO of Trokt

This episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast (www.legaltechstartupfocus.com/podcast) has your host, Charlie Uniman, interviewing Chris Draper, founder and CEO of Trokt (www.trokt.com). As Trokt describes itself on its website, ". . . we build technologies and engineer solutions designed to lessen the clutter associated with document collaboration and secure finalized versions of various digital file types with immutability against digital fraud."

After learning of Chris's professional beginnings in engineering-related ventures (and also after learning just how the company's name, "Trokt," came to be), Charlie and Chris first discuss what it is that Trokt offers. Chris establishes an excellent use case for blockchain technology as he describes, in a very understandable and user friendly way, how Trokt's "thumbprint" tech enables document creators/users to establish securely the authenticity of a document as it may move from one law firm, enterprise or custodian to another. There's no better way to appreciate what the blockchain can offer than to hear Chris describe what Trokt's tech can do to track and confirm a document's authenticity (and, by the way, it is indeed blockchain that we're talking about here, not cryptocurrency, which happens to be just one use for blockchain tech).

Chris then goes on to offer wisdom to legal tech startup leaders from his own experiences in leading such a startup himself. Most significantly, Chris cautions against overpromising and underdelivering on a startup's tech (don't be the "smoke," be the "fire") and alerts listeners to ethical considerations that must accompany a legal tech startup leader's decision making.