{"id":6071,"date":"2014-02-22T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=4803"},"modified":"2020-04-03T18:01:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T22:01:21","slug":"origins-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup","title":{"rendered":"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The origins of our startup aren\u2019t glam or sexy like others you\u2019ve probably heard about. We aren\u2019t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren\u2019t HBS grads looking to make headlines (although an occasional headline would be nice, we admit). We are a group of small business owners frustrated with our past experience with legal services professionals. One day, we decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n<p>We intuitively knew that the idea behind <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lawyerfair.com\/\">LawyerFair<\/a>, our legal service comparison website, was a winner. And we heard there were others out there who used lawyers and weren&#8217;t always thrilled by the experience. In addition, industry news and market research confirmed our view that\u00a0<a title=\"(Dawning of a) new era in legal services\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lawyerfair.com\/dawning-new-era-legal-services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">change is rapidly becoming inevitable in the legal services market<\/a>. With some market research and a hunch, we decided to act quickly and get our idea out into the market.<\/p>\n<p>Within weeks of our initial idea, we launched. There were times when we were screaming, gasping for air, and hungry for food. Some Dunkin Donuts helped solve the latter problem, but after that we were off.<\/p>\n<p>What is exciting about launching at a rapid pace is that we didn&#8217;t spend too much time pondering about what might and might not work. We\u2019ve been using Eric Ries\u2019\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/theleanstartup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lean startup mentality<\/a>, and it&#8217;s been working out well \u00a0for us so far.\u00a0We\u2019re getting the core idea out and working with market feedback to shape our message and offerings. It hasn\u2019t been too difficult, since we knew about the disconnect between SMEs and legal services from experiencing it ourselves.\u00a0We also heard from industry news and market surveys that SMEs, in general, felt pretty grumpy with lawyers.\u00a0And finally, we conducted our own pre-launch market research.<\/p>\n<p>But until you\u2019re out in the market, responding to people and managing real issues, it\u2019s all theory and some questions remain.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have we pitched it right?<\/li>\n<li>Will the messaging work?<\/li>\n<li>Will the research mutate into activity?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s only when you launch that the answers start rolling in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the verdict after four months of LawyerFair?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>We&#8217;ve experienced a combination of excitement, surprise, head scratching and very busy days. It has been the roller coaster ride one might expect when he or she is launching a new business.<\/p>\n<p>We know from here that it\u2019s as much about the execution as the idea. It\u2019s about how we debate, deconstruct, and deliver, in response to what the market is telling us, that will make this project fly or die. Things are looking good so far.\u00a0We\u2019re building up a really talented panel of lawyers, and business owners are responding warmly to the competitive tendering process. Just yesterday, we received the kind of feedback that reassures us we\u2019re heading in the right direction. Furthermore,\u00a0we\u2019re building a team who really cares about the service we\u2019re delivering and the value it can add to business owners.\u00a0That makes a huge difference, especially on the days when the phone doesn\u2019t ring or the Dunkin Donuts run out\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"finalnote\">Editor&#8217;s note: This story originally appeared <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lawyerfair.com\/the-story-so-far\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The origins of our startup aren\u2019t glam or sexy like others you\u2019ve probably heard about. We aren\u2019t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren\u2019t HBS grads looking to make headlines (although an occasional headline would be nice, we admit). We are a group of small business owners frustrated with our past experience with legal services professionals. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1076,"featured_media":4880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The origins of our startup aren\u2019t glam or sexy like others you\u2019ve probably heard about. We aren\u2019t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren\u2019t \u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The origins of our startup aren\u2019t glam or sexy like others you\u2019ve probably heard about. We aren\u2019t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren\u2019t \u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ideas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-03T22:01:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?resize=1440,810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Khaleelah Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Khaleelah Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Khaleelah Jones\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/c48e817d6d5f4802625e1462c606fbae\"},\"headline\":\"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-03T22:01:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup\"},\"wordCount\":531,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592\",\"articleSection\":[\"Professional Development\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup\",\"name\":\"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-03T22:01:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"The origins of our startup aren\u2019t glam or sexy like others you\u2019ve probably heard about. We aren\u2019t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren\u2019t \u2026\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592\",\"width\":3888,\"height\":2592},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Professional Development\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"name\":\"Ideas\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\",\"name\":\"WeWork\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"width\":55,\"height\":55,\"caption\":\"WeWork\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/c48e817d6d5f4802625e1462c606fbae\",\"name\":\"Khaleelah Jones\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd38f1d423057a33d4acae58ca22b2b20b41668c954cfcebad25dceda4bcaf3f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd38f1d423057a33d4acae58ca22b2b20b41668c954cfcebad25dceda4bcaf3f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Khaleelah Jones\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author\/khaleelahjones\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup","description":"The origins of our startup aren\u2019t glam or sexy like others you\u2019ve probably heard about. We aren\u2019t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren\u2019t \u2026","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup","og_description":"The origins of our startup aren\u2019t glam or sexy like others you\u2019ve probably heard about. We aren\u2019t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren\u2019t \u2026","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup","og_site_name":"Ideas","article_published_time":"2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-03T22:01:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1440,"height":810,"url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?resize=1440,810","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Khaleelah Jones","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Khaleelah Jones","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup"},"author":{"name":"Khaleelah Jones","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/c48e817d6d5f4802625e1462c606fbae"},"headline":"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup","datePublished":"2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-03T22:01:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup"},"wordCount":531,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592","articleSection":["Professional Development"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup","name":"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592","datePublished":"2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-03T22:01:21+00:00","description":"The origins of our startup aren\u2019t glam or sexy like others you\u2019ve probably heard about. We aren\u2019t disillusioned Silicon Valley techies. We aren\u2019t \u2026","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592","width":3888,"height":2592},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/origins-startup#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Professional Development","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The (not so glamorous) origins of our startup"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","name":"Ideas","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization","name":"WeWork","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","width":55,"height":55,"caption":"WeWork"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/c48e817d6d5f4802625e1462c606fbae","name":"Khaleelah Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd38f1d423057a33d4acae58ca22b2b20b41668c954cfcebad25dceda4bcaf3f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd38f1d423057a33d4acae58ca22b2b20b41668c954cfcebad25dceda4bcaf3f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Khaleelah Jones"},"url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author\/khaleelahjones"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/02\/picjumbo.com_IMG_5890.jpg?fit=3888%2C2592","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46143,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071\/revisions\/46143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}