Y Combinator Startup Podcast How This 25-Year-Old Built A $675M Legal AI Startup (With No Legal Experience)
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Aug 26, 2025 
Max Junestrand, co-founder and CEO of Legora, shares his remarkable journey of building a $675M legal AI startup with no prior legal experience. He discusses the rapid scaling from 10 to 100 employees in just 13 months and how he secured $80M in funding. The conversation delves into revolutionizing legal tech using AI, transforming conservative markets, and the challenges of developing user-friendly, compliant software. Max also offers insights on navigating the legal tech space and the future role of lawyers in an AI-driven world.
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LLMs Made Legal Text Workable
- Generative AI transformed legal software by enabling work with unstructured legal text and precedents.
- Legora built a POC quickly after GPT-3.5 and scaled it to an enterprise-grade workspace.
Prioritize Compliance For Law Firms
- Build compliance-first infrastructure when serving regulated customers in Europe.
- Host data in-region, disable training on customer data, and meet legal retention and review requirements.
Demo That Converted A Skeptical Partner
- Legora demoed to a skeptical managing partner by answering a legal research query tied to Swedish legislation live.
- The partner had an immediate 'aha' moment and saw the product's practical value.