Drew Winship of Juristat
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Drew Winship, the founder and CEO of Juristat, which was honored in our:
Tell us the origin story of Juristat – what problem were you trying to solve and why?
Juristat was founded in 2012 to be “Moneyball for lawyers”. The other founders and I saw a vacuum in the legal analytics market for metrics on the human behavior of judges, attorneys, and corporate counsel. We met as strangers at a hackathon, and that weekend, we came up with a value prop and had a working model of our first algorithm.
What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?
Getting to product-market fit in the legal tech space is difficult. The legal profession values predictability over innovation, and so it takes many years of consistent, high-quality work to build a brand that clients trust.
What does the future hold for Juristat?
Looking towards the future, we see continued growth, especially with our workflow automation tools that help law firms increase efficiency and cut costs, and thus increase profits. We’ve continued to hire throughout 2020 and plan to grow headcount another 20% over the next few months.
What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in St. Louis?
St. Louis is a great place to start a company, especially a vertical SaaS like Juristat. Vertical SaaS can often suffer from lower total addressable markets and longer customer acquisition timelines at launch, killing startups with coastal burn rate and growth expectations. St. Louis has a great pool of talent, easy access to clients all over the U.S., and a vibrant seed investment scene.
What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Know what you want to be. Starting a pizza place and starting the next Salesforce are both tasks for entrepreneurs, but they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. If you want to build a tech company and grow really fast, then find something with a big TAM (total available market) that you can get to $2M in ARR (annual recurring revenue) in the first year, and make sure you make the world better, not worse. Then, find the right people to take the journey with you and start.