In May 2020, Hishem Alsalman and Carlos Acevedo Salgado set out to bridge the communication barrier between attorneys and their clients.
Less than a year and a half later, the Legal Gantt co-founders not only have their mobile application being used by attorneys, but also a ton of momentum from local startup organizations.
Since August, Legal Gantt won a Vogt Award, the Render Competition and more recently was selected as an Awesome Inc. fellow. It's co-founders and chief marketing officer Kate Hatter were also inaugural Inno Under 25 nominees.
"It has been absolutely phenomenal," Alsalman said of the Vogt 10-week bootcamp. "We've had a lot of great mentors and we've continuously received feedback that’s helped push us in the right direction, from building the best pitch decks to being able to fully understand our products and the cost of acquisition.”
I first interviewed Alsalman and Acevedo last fall, as the company was preparing for the initial launch of its app. It's now preparing to launch version two, and with $125,000 of capital in hand thanks to Vogt and Render, Alsalman said they are going to build up Legal Gantt's marketing efforts and software development team.
The new version of the app will improve its integration with Clio, a case and document management platform. In addition to cosmetic changes, it will have new components based on the feedback the company's garnered from its users thus far, Alsalman said.
“We thought that the messenger wasn't going to be as valuable as it really has become for these attorneys. Instead of messaging their client via email or texting them on their personal cell phones, they really appreciate the fact that they can message within the software," he said. "That is why we added the online and offline components, so they were able to track that and they're able to send all types of documents through Legal Gantt. And whenever they send a new document, it will update the older documents as well.”
Alsalman said the goal is to generate enough sales to pursue a $700,000 fundraising round by mid-2022.
"It's crazy how far we've come so far," he said. “I really urge anyone that is thinking about creating an idea that will actually benefit people and change the world to go ahead and do it. Jump out of your comfort zone and just try to pursue your goal because guess what? The worst-case scenario is that you learn a lot from the whole process.”
