In this episode of SaaS Open Mic, I talk to Matt Spiegel, a criminal defense lawyer turned 2x legaltech SaaS entrepreneur. Our interview follows the story of how Matt's personal experience fielding client calls in between court trials led him to build a business designed to help lawyers like him. We discuss the differences in building a startup when the business idea hits you from personal experience versus proactive market research. Matt also shares his thoughts on how too much focus on your exit strategy can lead to cutting corners.
Matt Spiegel is a licensed lawyer and serial entrepreneur. His first tech startup was called MyCase, a SaaS product that, “keeps all of your important case details — documents, contacts, calendars, emails, tasks, invoices — in a single, organized location.”
The transition from criminal defense law to SaaS started as a “scratch your own itch” kind of thing. A typical day for Matt meant receiving dozens of calls, texts, and emails every day from nervous clients wanting updates and resolution — often while he was in court. This inspired an initial personal build that transformed into a full-fledged legal practice management platform.
Matt’s first SaaS success led to more and after some experimentation in B2C, he decided to start another B2B legal tech company, Lawmatics. In this episode of SaaS Open Mic, Matt shares his learnings and approach to building businesses.
Can thinking about your exit strategy narrow or diminish your exit strategy? Or at the very least your focus? Matt thinks so:
“Build your business as if you’re going to build this massive business that’s going to buy other businesses one day. Some entrepreneurs build a company to sell it quickly, but I feel like you don’t build a great company, necessarily, by doing that. You might cut corners if you are building to sell in a couple of years”
Matt Spiegel, Lawmatics
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