Problems worth solving
My attempt to articulate a framework for how to choose opportunities by comparing two legal tech markets: law firm timekeeping vs. contracts
I recently met an engineer who was looking for a lawyer to co-found a legal startup with. “I’m going to build a startup and need to find someone who can handle go-to-market.” Although I wasn’t interested, I was very curious about what legal-related problem he wanted to solve with his technology.
“Timekeeping,” he said, confidently. “I’ve done a lot of research, and spoken with lots of lawyers. Every single one of them said that they hate keeping track of their billable hours. So that’s the problem I’m going to solve!”
Usually when someone tells me about their goals, I try to be supportive. I don’t want to be *that* guy who always shoots down ideas. But in this situation I felt like I had to say something. So instead of just smiling and nodding, I actually sat him down and tried to explain to him why he shouldn’t start a timekeeping company.
Honestly I was surprised by how confident I was. Silicon Valley is full of veterans who shoot down ideas only to find themselves eating their own words. The founders of companies like Zoom & Airbnb were discouraged from pursuing their ideas too—and they ended up building gigantic businesses. Who am I to speak so confidently about what is or isn’t a good idea?
It’s true that I could be wrong. So ever since I had that conversation, I’ve been trying to process my own reaction. Why was I so confident? How was I so sure it was a bad idea? To me, it was obvious that starting a law firm timekeeping company would run into a million obstacles. Digging deeper, I realized that I’d run the idea through a mental framework that I’ve become accustomed to using, when deciding what problems are worth solving.
That’s what I’d like to share with you all today. The framework. Going through the exercise of processing my thoughts forced me to articulate how exactly I select what problems are worth solving. What opportunities are worth chasing.
Before I get into it, I first I want to describe the reasons why I discouraged that entrepreneur from starting a timekeeping company. I think that’ll give you some insight into how I think about opportunities—and set the stage for next week, when I describe the details about my framework.
But first, let’s talk about why I believe law firm timekeeping isn’t a technology problem worth solving.