Seattle-based legal tech startup Clearbrief is looking to bolster its ranks after raising $4 million Wednesday.
Founder and CEO Jacqueline Schafer said the company, which has roughly 20 employees, is adding sales and engineering staff. She said she didn't have a specific headcount target for a year from now, but likes having "a small, agile team."
"We especially like to hire people who like to have a strong sense of ownership over their projects. My goal isn't necessarily to have a super-massive team," Schafer said.
The majority of Clearbrief's employees are based in Seattle, she added, but the company has no office and works remotely. Schafer said the company will evaluate whether or not it needs an office as the team grows, but for now employees meet up in person for social events.
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Clearbrief, founded in 2020, makes a Microsoft Word add-on that allows users to find and insert facts that support their legal writing. In addition to finding facts to support legal writing, users can upload their opponents' briefs to Clearbrief to find factual weaknesses and inadmissible evidence. Clearbrief also catches fake cases.
Schafer worked as an assistant attorney general in Alaska and Washington earlier in her career. Jose Saura, Clearbrief's chief technology officer, spent about 20 years at Microsoft before joining the startup.
Investors in Clearbrief include Sequoia, Madrona Venture Group, Authentic Ventures, How Women Invest, Reign Ventures and the law firm Wilson Sonsini.
Schafer didn't disclose how many clients Clearbrief has but said the startup has "hundreds and hundreds of legal organization customers." She added that the product could move beyond law down the road.
"Because we're very practical, we have to be as a startup, we are focused on the enterprise use cases," Schafer said. "In particular for compliance teams at large corporations, they do a lot of their writing and thinking in Microsoft Word. A lot of what they're writing and thinking about is these documents that are confidential or internal to the company."
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