Brian Liu Co-Founder, LegalZoom
The motivation to start LegalZoom: My co-founder and I were both attorneys. We were miserable. We were looking for an escape plan. All kinds of things were happening online at that time. Online stock trading, online travel, etc. We thought why can’t we do something similar for the law?
How did you come up with the idea? We knew that for common legal problems you don’t need a lawyer. You just need access to information. So we decided to create an online service where you can do this stuff on your own. We are trying to democratize law.
Creating a new market: 50% of people who have a legal need never get it taken care of because they don’t think they can afford it.
What were some early signs of traction? Early on one Friday night, we got 10 orders for a document called a living will. It is Friday night and they got nothing better to do than make a living will? We are on to something.
Know what your company actually does: The technical business of what we do is words on paper. But that is not what we actually do. We help people in times of need [divorce, wills/death, the creation of a new business].
A lesson Brian learned from his dad: My Dad worked in the shipping industry. He eventually decided to work for himself. He rented an office and set up four desks. He was the only person working there. I asked him why he needed four desks. He said because he was determined to fill those desks up.