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Leaving venture capital to build legal AI
In this episode of Builders, Matthew sits down with Paul Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Patlytics, the AI-powered platform that supports the full patent lifecycle. Paul spent years as a venture capitalist before jumping to the other side of the table, and in under two and a half years, he's taken Patlytics from an idea to a company trusted by more than 40% of AmLaw 100 firms.
This episode digs into what it actually took to earn that trust: a "business first, fundraising follows" philosophy, a decade-old friendship with his co-founder that became the company's operating glue, and a hard line on accuracy in a profession where attorneys don't get a second shot.
In this episode, Matthew and Paul discuss:
- Why Paul walked away from venture capital to found Patlytics, and how founder stress differs from investor stress
- How to build a healthy and long-lasting co-founder relationship
- Patlytics' contrarian fundraising philosophy that led to a Seed, Series A, and Series B in under two and a half years
- How Patlytics builds trust with lawyers who have almost zero tolerance for AI hallucinations
- Selling to two very different buyers, law firms and in-house counsel, under one platform
- The love-hate relationship every vertical AI company has with frontier labs as LLMs keep improving
- The most common mistakes founders make when applying general AI to high-stakes, specialized domains
- What law firms will look like in five years, and the parts of the job that will always need a human
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