At 23, with no legal background, @MaxJunestrand co-founded Legora to transform how lawyers work. Today, Legora’s AI workspace is used by tens of thousands of lawyers across Europe—valued at $675M just 13 months after launch. From due diligence grids that turn days of work into minutes, to Word integrations that renegotiate contracts, Max sat down with @gustaf to share how Legora won over skeptical firms, scaled from 10 to 100 people, and built a new category in legal AI. 00:45 – Legora's Origin Story 01:00 – Building an AI Workspace for Lawyers 02:20 – The GPT Unlock 04:10 – The “Aha Moment” with Law Firms 06:15 – Raising $80M and Scaling Fast 06:30 – How Legora Works 09:40 – How It Transforms Legal Work 11:40 – Selling To AI Skeptics 14:40 – Creative Use Cases: From Court Battles to NDAs 17:30 – Starting Without Industry Expertise 18:40 – Interviewing 100 Lawyers 20:30 – Competing with Legacy Legal Tech Giants 23:50 – Tech Stack and Model Strategy 25:00 – Who Actually Buys AI inside a Law Firm? 27:00 – Cracking Sales in Conservative Industries 28:00 – Max’s Background: From eSports to Startups 30:50 – Hypergrowth: 10 → 100 People in 13 Months 34:00 – Why Hiring Ex-Founders Works 36:45 – The Future Job of a Lawyer 38:35 – What PMF Felt Like 39:45 – Why They Stayed in Stockholm (Not SF) 41:00 – Becoming the Category Leader in Legal AI 42:00 – Advice for Founders Building Vertical AI Companies 43:20 – What It’s Like to Work at Legora
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand 23, no legal background, $675M in 13 months. My kinda market entry.
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand Innovative solutions for the legal field
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand Impressive. Disruption often comes from seeing a need, not necessarily expertise. This shows how impactful fresh eyes can be.
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand bold moves, revolutionizing the legal workspace.
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand The most interesting founders don’t come from the industry - they come to reinvent it
$675M in 13 months shows what happens when AI solves real workflow bottlenecks legal due diligence is perfect for automation: - highly structured data - repetitive analysis patterns - massive time savings potential - clear ROI measurement the "no legal background" part is actually an advantage - outsiders see inefficiencies that insiders accept as normal same pattern works across industries: find the tedious, high-value work that professionals hate doing that's where AI creates the most value and adoption happens fastest domain expertise helps but fresh eyes on broken workflows wins
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand @HakiChain is trying to do the same for legal tech in Africa. We are pushing legal tech in Africa! 🚀 I’d love to exchange insights and learn from your journey. What do you think, @WeAreLegora & @ycombinator?
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand Love it! Something to aspire to
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand Another Y Combinator bubble, congrats
@ycombinator @Scobleizer @MaxJunestrand Most of these AI startups will themselves just be made obsolete but GPT 6 & 7. Bookmark this
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand Very similar to @legaladvice_now for firms. Nice interview, a lot of interesting data.
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand @WagaGaming look who we have here! Dota 2 gets you far 😁
@ycombinator @Scobleizer @MaxJunestrand The only indicator of Age is basically a cut off line for stop acting like an asshole, never a starting line for when to be an adult or successful. :)
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand I dont know but why does it feel like @MaxJunestrand's video is an AI generated avatar
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand how did skeptical partners get convinced, was it demos or results?
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand tech founder origin stories always sound like anime plotlines
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand just wait till lawyers start using chatgpt to draft briefs too
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand from esports strats to legal stacks… that’s meta level category creation
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand Very nice interview, @MaxJunestrand. How do you handle privacy concerns? I spoke with some lawyers in Portugal, and for them, cloud AI is a big no-no.
@ycombinator @MaxJunestrand Age doesn't really matter in funding.
