Grit

#231 CEO & Co-Founder Harvey, Winston Weinberg w/ Ilya Fushman: Worthy Sacrifices

Feb 24, 2025

In this discussion, Winston Weinberg, CEO and co-founder of Harvey, shares his commitment to respecting the legal industry while integrating AI technology. Ilya Fushman, from Kleiner Perkins, emphasizes the role of AI as a collaborative copilot in various sectors. They explore the importance of thoughtful automation, distinguishing between enjoyable commitments and true sacrifices in work. The conversation also highlights innovative hiring in the AI legal space and the need for professionals to adapt as industries evolve.

01:05:44

Creator website

Episode guests

Ilya Fushman

Winston Weinberg

AI Summary

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Understanding the complexities of the legal profession is crucial for AI companies to design effective and respectful technology solutions.

Streamlining legal processes through AI can enhance service efficiency and accessibility while addressing the rising costs of legal services.

Maintaining high-quality outputs in AI solutions for legal applications requires rigorous review processes to ensure consumer confidence and accuracy.

Deep dives

Importance of Partnering with Industries

Companies emerging from Silicon Valley often attempt to automate various industries without fully understanding or respecting their complexities. It's crucial to create partnerships with these industries to ensure that technology solutions are not only innovative but also compatible with existing practices. Emphasizing a collaborative approach can significantly contribute to a company’s success by aligning technology with actual industry needs. For example, applying AI specifically to legal and tax compliance helps transform these fields rather than just implementing a tech-first mentality.

Intro

2min

AI Transformations in Legal and Investment Sectors

21min

Bridging Tradition and Technology

20min

Redefining Sacrifice: Enjoyment vs. Obligation in Work

3min

Navigating Growth: The Balancing Act

8min

Innovative Hiring and Scaling in AI Legal Sector

10min

Understanding Grit and the Importance of Sacrifice

2min

Guests: Winston Weinberg, CEO & co-founder of Harvey; and Ilya Fushman, partner at Kleiner Perkins

“If you think about pretty much any job out there in the world, we will have some sort of [AI] copilot,” says Kleiner Perkins partner Ilya Fushman. “The question is, who are the right folks to build it, and what’s their vision?”

For Harvey CEO & co-founder Winston Weinberg, the vision is clear: Silicon Valley cannot and should not try to disrupt the legal profession by automating the job of lawyers. Instead, he says, they need to have “respect for the industry” before designing AI solutions that speed up specific tasks.

“These industries are incredibly complex,” Winston says. “Legal is one of the oldest professions known to man. There are firms that are over a hundred years old. There are firms that are hundreds of years old, and having a brand that says, ‘We are partnering with the industry to transform it’ versus ‘We are just going to steamroll the industry’ is really important for us.”

Chapters:

(01:16) - The zeitgeist switch
(02:58) - What is Harvey?
(06:10) - Chief Law Officers
(07:58) - Agentic workflows
(09:43) - Ilya’s investment thesis
(12:48) - Collaborating with AI
(16:05) - Task automation
(20:52) - Why is it called Harvey?
(23:14) - Respecting the legal industry
(26:43) - Winston’s past jobs
(28:47) - First steps
(32:13) - Scaling the company
(35:02) - Scaling yourself
(37:19) - Who works for Harvey
(40:50) - Making mistakes
(43:15) - Making sacrifices
(45:51) - Growing too fast
(50:50) - Setting priorities
(54:54) - Harvey’s competitors
(57:38) - Internal virality
(01:00:46) - Testing Harvey’s limits
(01:03:29) - Who Harvey is hiring
(01:04:01) - What “grit” means to Winston

Mentioned in this episode: ChatGPT, the Fortune 500, Microsoft Copilot, Gabe Pereyra, Activision, Excel, Counsel AI Corporation, Suits, Harvard University, Netflix, Dell, O'Melveny & Myers, Hueston Hennigan, Meta, Reddit, Jason Kwon, Anthropic, Marissa Mayer, Eric Schmidt, Google, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Glean.

Links:

Connect with Winston

Connect with Ilya

Connect with Joubin

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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