MikeLegal was founded in the year 2017 by Tushar Bhargava and Anshul Gupta with the aim of revolutionising the law community and ever since they haven’t looked back.
When were you founded & What is the product/service you provide?
MikeLegal was founded in September 2017, with case law research software. Then later in 2018, we introduced MikeIP Suite which helped legal teams automate their entire trademark prosecution process.
Now, in 2021 we have also introduced Microsoft Word Add-in to help legal teams proofread and format contracts and agreements.
What is the company’s long and short-term vision? Where do you see your industry going in the next five years?
Our main goal is to become the force of change in the way lawyers work. By automating mundane but critical processes for lawyers we can help legal teams work not only faster, but more efficiently and with greater precision.
The industry is already on the cusp of a revolution, and we are happy to lead the way in the industry. In the long term, we see legal tech as a critical element of how lawyers and legal teams work.
How did you get inspiration for the Company? How did you go about researching and validating the idea?
MikeLegal was inspired by the simple thought of how we can reduce the workload or help automate certain processes for lawyers. It seemed like there was a lot of progress and advancement in this area worldwide but not in India. So there was a great opportunity as we saw it when we began.
Is the company funded? If yes, how many rounds & how much funding?
Yes. We raised one round of funding in 2020 (details here). As a business, our focus is to create a profitable business, and hence funding is never a necessity for us.
How does the product work & What problems does it solve?
We have multiple products, mainly under 2 bouquets – MikeIP Suite – which is for IP lawyers and corporates or legal teams dealing with trademark portfolios, and the other is Mike DocReview – a revolutionary MS word add-in that helps lawyers proofread and format contracts and agreements in minutes. Details can be found here.
What are your USP and innovation? How are you different from others?
The features, the user experience, and the level of detailing we offer with each product are incomparable to others on the market. Especially for Mike DocReview, we are one of the few companies in the world to offer such a product.
Plus, the customer service and support. Our renewal rate is about 95%, which itself says a lot about our product’s USP.
What are some of your competitors & what advantage do you have over them? & Briefly explain your revenue model?
There are a few competitors to our products. However, our customer support is the differentiating factor. We are always in touch with our users to understand their feedback and keep introducing new features.
We work on a subscription per user model, which is at times tailor-made for teams depending on requirements, size, etc.
What difficulties did you encounter when you started the company & Were you impacted by the Covid outbreak?
For us, the main challenge in covid was to switch to remote working. But within a few weeks, we were able to set up such systems and processes that till date we continue to work remotely, and can keep going on without loss in productivity.
In terms of business, for us, covid was a game-changer as it really pushed legal teams in India to adopt the technology due to lack of resources, downsizing of teams, and remote-working models. Covid really made the adoption of legal tech smoother in the Indian legal market.
What are your future plans & launches?
The future for MikeLegal is very exciting, as we continue to thrive and innovate new solutions.
Current company size, work culture, Hiring Funda
We at MikeLegal are currently a team of 20+ people. Our hiring ‘funda’ is very clear – to hire on basis of passion, talent, and problem-solving skills and not on basis of fancy degree, sex, orientation, race or etc.
We do believe that you can help someone or train them to gain skills but not passion, thinking or the way you work or problems solve or think. Even if you look at our team, it is a big mix of people from varied backgrounds.
A piece of advice for the readers.
Love what you do. Be patient and persistent towards your goals. Stay focussed on the long-term goals you want to achieve, as the short-term goals and paths may keep changing, but the ultimate goal should remain the same.
Start-ups and tech sound fancy and exciting, but it all comes down to the above factors and how much faith you put in yourself, your team, and the product you build.