AppWorks #13 Barry Kuo (Founder and CEO, Lawsnote): Embracing Passion and Mission During the Founder Journey
The founder journey can be long, and often filled with loneliness and uncertainty. As part of the AppWorks "Founder Insights" series, AppWorks alumni founders will share their experiences and perspectives to provide inspiration for aspiring and fledgling founders.
This time, we invited Barry Kuo, an AppWorks #13 alumnus and the founder of Lawsnote Inc. , a startup focused on legal-tech solutions. Barry reflects on his resilience through several stories and takeaways from the past eight years, offering tidbits of advice for early-stage founders. By Antony Lee, AppWorks
Q: From your founder journey, what advice would you give to first-time founders?
A: Founders are often naturally optimistic, which makes them prone to underestimating the amount of time it takes for change to occur. As a result, each stage of startup growth usually takes longer than expected. For first-time founders, my advice is to build a company in a space that you are genuinely passionate about, because passion and mission are far more important motivating factors than most founders anticipate.
Entering the 8th year of my founder journey, I found that one of the main reasons why my peers can continue their founder journey is because they have great passion or a strong sense of mission. Take Lawsnote as an example. Although we reached break-even in the second year, the challenges and hardships of my founder journey were far beyond my imagination. Personally, I have faced lawsuits and prosecutor searches with police in the office……, encountering numerous bizarre incidents that made me question, "Should I continue?"
After a few years of scaling-up, founders' attention gradually shifts from product towards financial aspects, which are neither romantic nor exciting. As the company grows, it also gives birth to many systems that founders initially resisted. With more colleagues, there are also numerous concerns about interpersonal relationships and communication. Building a startup itself is not just about survival; it is a painful process of growing up and maturity. Almost every founder has entertained thoughts of throwing in the towel during these periods. In the difficult early stages of a startup, what keeps one going is persistence, passion, and mission—the North Star of a founder. In hindsight, this aspect is much more critical than I initially imagined.
Q: What small change had an outsized effect on your journey as a founder?
A: In the early days of my startup, I started doing one small thing, which was creating a "Culture Checklist" when recruiting each team member. Initially, I wasn't sure if it would make a difference. However, as the company grew to a certain size and when I began networking and learning from other founders at a similar stage, I noticed that many of them faced conflicts arising between employees and company culture as they expanded. Surprisingly, I managed to avoid that issue, and I believe it was due to this small change.
During the early days of my founder journey, I was deeply fascinated by the "How to Start a Startup" course offered by Y Combinator at Stanford. I must have watched it at least 20 times, and my favorite part was Brian Chesky's (Founder and CEO,? Airbnb) lecture on "Building a Strong Company Culture" .
To be honest, in my previous work experience, I saw company culture as mere slogans hanging on the walls, such as "customer first," which seemed cliche. Back then, I wasn't convinced about the importance of company culture. However, that course, or more specifically, Brian Chesky's heartfelt talk (he also became my favorite entrepreneur), captivated me. So, during the first three months of establishing my company, I spent a lot of time refining and examining our company culture, implementing it in every aspect, especially during the hiring process. As a result, I created a culture checklist, and every candidate had to pass the culture fit assessment. Regardless of how outstanding a candidate might be, we wouldn't bring them onboard if they didn't align with our culture.
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We started doing this with our very first hire, and we still follow it in our interview process today. Every interviewer must evaluate each candidate for culture fit, and all participating colleagues must approve before a candidate can be considered for hiring.
I know many founders who, when their startup reaches around 15-25 employees, start experiencing internal culture conflicts to some extent. The team begins to divide into different cliques, and the cohesion that once existed suddenly deteriorates. Many founders suffer from this situation and have to undergo organizational restructuring, reshape company culture, or deal with various HR issues and talent loss.
However, I have encountered very few of these problems so far. I speculate that the initial emphasis on implementing company culture may have had some effect. Admittedly, during the life-or-death struggle in the early days of a startup, this might not be the most urgent and critical matter. However, by getting this aspect right, you can build a harmonious team culture, avoid many HR troubles, and it won't require a significant amount of time allocation. I believe the sooner founders define their company culture and implement it in all aspects, especially in talent recruitment, the better.
Q: As an AppWorks alumnus, do you have any memorable stories or experiences to share?
A: It's been seven years since I joined the AppWorks community, and throughout my founder journey up to this day, I've received a lot of assistance from AppWorks. Whether it was in expanding my network or getting advice during periods of uncertainty, as a first-time founder back then, AppWorks has been instrumental in assisting me achieve my vision. In fact, our company's current Deputy Chief Operating Officer (Alma Yu) is also a peer founder from the same batch as me from the AppWorks Accelerator program.
But the most memorable moment for me goes back seven years ago, during the interview for applying to join AppWorks. When I entered the AppWorks meeting room, all the participants' business cards were neatly arranged in order on the table. Before I could even introduce myself, everyone eagerly introduced themselves. Besides the Partners, several other AppWorks colleagues joined. As someone who now frequently conducts interviews, I can fully imagine the effort it takes for AppWorks to organize dozens of interviews for each batch of founders, ensuring that every detail is in place. That interview deeply resonated with me, and it aligns with my subsequent interactions with AppWorks. It exemplifies the genuine respect AppWorks has always shown towards every founder.
I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my experiences. I also encourage early-stage founders to find a startup vision that truly ignites your passion and sense of mission from within.
[Author and Startup]
Barry Kuo is the Founder and CEO of Lawsnote, a lawyer with a background in science and technology. He is currently engaged in building legal technology, leveraging technology to transform the legal industry for the digital age.
Lawsnote is a startup deeply focused on legal-tech solutions, dedicated to saving lawyers' time. Its flagship product, the Lawsnote Legal Search Engine, was launched in 2016 and shifted to a subscription model in 2017. Within three years, it became the most widely-used legal search system among lawyers in Taiwan. Today, over 60% of lawyers and 80% of law schools use Lawsnote to find legal information. Lawsnote: https://lawsnote.com/?
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