Legora founder Max Junestrand was rejected by YC, then accepted. The difference was having a competing term sheet and pitching with aggressive confidence, demonstrating they would succeed with or without YC. This fire convinced the partners.
While pausing sales for 6 months to rebuild, Legora framed the delay as a consequence of overwhelming demand. They put new, signed customers into a "queue," creating scarcity and social proof that inadvertently made the product even more desirable by the time it was ready.
Legora wins 85% of competitive deals by focusing on three things: product quality, team dedication, and their long-term roadmap. In a fast-moving field like AI, enterprise clients are betting on a partner who can navigate the future, not just a tool for today.
At a legal tech conference, Legora's founder scrapped his slide deck for a spontaneous live demo. The high-risk move worked perfectly, electrifying an audience tired of talk. This single presentation generated 150 demo requests and kickstarted their entire sales pipeline.
Legora's founder felt "fake product market fit" when a single presentation generated 150 demo requests. True PMF only arrived after rebuilding the product to be scalable and reliable, proving that intense initial interest doesn't equal a sustainable business.
To secure early user interviews with busy lawyers, Legora's founder offered to buy them lunch and pay their hourly fee. While most declined payment, the gesture showed immense respect for their time, leading to more willing and candid conversations that defined their initial product.
Legora pivoted from a dashboard with six fixed functions to a chat interface. They realized a fixed UI requires constant updates, whereas a conversational UI automatically becomes more powerful as the underlying LLMs improve, allowing the product to "rise with the tide" of AI progress.
After raising $35M, Legora's founder halted sales for six months to address scalability issues. Despite VC pressure, he correctly identified that onboarding prestigious clients to a faulty product would burn their reputation and kill long-term growth, a risk greater than a temporary sales pause.
Legora accelerated its early product development by getting its first big law firm design partner to let them work from their offices. They "forward embedded" into the firm's teams, which gave them unparalleled access to user workflows, culture, and feedback, building trust and a better product.