A decade after the craziest, scariest thing I’ve done

A little over a decade ago, I made one of the craziest, scariest decisions of my life. I left a promising career as an attorney at Kirkland & Ellis to work in a cramped, creaky-floored coworking space above a rug store in downtown Manhattan. That first year was spent in a state between profound sleep deprivation and caffeine jitters, with no salary and an endless task list.

After nearly a year of struggling with my original idea—a marketplace connecting startups with boutique legal professionals—my legal tech journey truly began over Labor Day weekend in 2014. My co-founders and I built the first version of Alt Legal, an automated, trademark-centric IP docketing platform. We worked through the holiday weekend to get ready for our first demo with a New York law firm that Tuesday.

The firm signed up on the spot. So did the next one. And the one after that. We knew we were onto something.

Fast forward ten years, and what started as a project with just one person in a grungy downtown coworking space has grown into a company I couldn’t have imagined. Our team now numbers over 50 incredible individuals who work tirelessly to serve thousands of customers in more than 40 countries. We manage millions of trademarks and deadlines every day, including portfolios for multibillion-dollar brands. From Am Law 10 firms and Fortune 50 companies to solo practitioners, our customers trust us to be an integral part of their IP work—a responsibility we take very seriously.

Along this journey, I have learned and grown so much, both personally and professionally. I became a father to two wonderful children, which gave me a new perspective on balance, growth, and patience. Alt Legal, too, has grown in ways I never anticipated. We’ve acquired five businesses (our fifth acquisition to be announced this Thursday), sent nearly 4 million emails to help our customers meet deadlines and identify potential infringement, and generated millions of dollars in new billings and cost savings for them.

We’re continuously guided by key lessons as we pursue our mission to make life easier for trademark professionals. After spending a decade building this business to support them, here are a few of my key takeaways:?

1. Listen to your customers! We developed our docketing system, and we continue to build our offerings, by deeply listening to our customers, understanding their needs, and translating those insights into a product that truly solves their problems.
2. Focus is key! By carving out a niche that even our multibillion-dollar competitors overlooked, we built a beloved brand in the trademark community.?
3. Layer your complexity! It’s tempting to have different codebases and versions of your software for a diverse customer base like ours. But in-house IP departments tend to expand their roles, small firms grow larger, individual users change firms or merge, and a hundred other small changes. Focusing on configurability has been crucial to our success and it means that even our smaller customers have access to enterprise features when they need it.?
4. Be kind! We've always treated the IP community with respect, offering free resources and creating a space for like-minded professionals to connect—whether they’re customers or not. We extend the same kindness and courtesy to our partners and our competitors.

As we celebrate 10 years of Alt Legal, I’m filled with immense gratitude—gratitude for my family, our incredible team, and for our customers and advocates in the IP community. Your passion and trust have made this journey worthwhile.?

Thank you for being part of our story. The journey is far from over, and I’m excited to share what’s next. Stay tuned for some exciting announcements—starting with a big one this Thursday!

Learn more about us!

• Alt Legal in the news - https://www.altlegal.com/news/
• Why Alt Legal - https://www.altlegal.com/our-approach/
• What our customers are saying - https://www.altlegal.com/case-studies/
• Sign up for the? I ? Trademarks Newsletter - https://www.altlegal.com/newsletter/?
• Upcoming Alt Legal events - https://www.altlegal.com/events/