UpCounsel

Getting legal work done just… sucks. It’s confusing, time consuming, and expensive. The average small business spends over $5,000 a year on legal fees. Startups average more than $100,000 a year.

The UpCounsel solution is simple: an online marketplace connecting businesses with a network of experienced independent attorneys - for 1/3rd the price. We remove the headaches and hassles for everyone, bringing you Legal You Can Love.

We’re solving a real pain point for consumers and attorneys alike, and our numbers speak for themselves. In just our first 12 months of operations, we’ve successfully saved UpCounsel clients over $12,000,000, DOUBLED revenues, and are profitable. Over 10M+ users have received free legal advice, and we have an average of 1.4M+ website users per month. 

As the first online legal services network to launch in the US, we’ve made (and continue to make) more than our fair share of headlines. From Forbes to Bloomberg, the media is talking.

Our enterprise pipeline is growing rapidly, and UpCounsel has helped unicorns like Airbnb battle their way to the top with world-class legal representation. 

The legal tech market is heating up rapidly, and investors are scrambling to grab a piece of the action. As an established brand with an innovative new leadership team, we’re poised for center-stage success.

The legal tech market will surpass $25 billion in 2025, with legal tech startups accelerating at a 27.82% CAGR. Investment in the legal tech space reached $1.2 billion in 2019 - and is only growing.

UpCounsel was founded in 2012, but finding the right business model and cost structure took time. That’s why in February of 2020, despite serving millions of users, the website announced it would be shutting down.

A few of UpCounsel’s biggest fans heard the news, and they took action. Enduring Ventures acquired the company, revolutionized the business model, and put UpCounsel back on track with strong profitability and rapid revenue growth.

Our new leadership team has a long history of building and scaling successful businesses, and they got straight to work building a new, unified vision for the future of UpCounsel.

Our new business model has transformed UpCounsel’s future with a hyperfocus on recurring revenue. In addition to launching new attorney subscriptions, we’ve reduced the fees we charge clients by 75% and introduced flexible pricing models.

Our new high-margin products serve our bottom line and serve our clients with increasingly personalized service options.

5 star reviews aren’t exactly common in the legal services industry. But at UpCounsel, we have thousands. Here’s what our users have to say about us:

By standing up our own branded law firm, we will be able to dramatically increase the rate of fulfillment of current inbound demand at very high margins without impacting current subscribers, leading to a 4-6x jump in revenues. This also allows us to open up the marketplace for a myriad of new practice areas providing 3-5x more opportunities and revenues to the platform thus widening and deepening our subscriber base. As a result of these moves, we will be better positioned to earn and retain far more of the clients’ overall spend as their businesses mature and their legal needs expand.

Remote working is the future, and the legal services industry is no exception. As more attorneys seek to operate flexibly, independently and remotely, UpCounsel is the solution they are looking for. We deliver the work flow of a law firm without requiring the crazy hours, commute time, and stress. 

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Our upcoming growth plans include expanding into personal law, launching a full-service UpCounsel branded legal firm (thanks to new regulations!), and doubling down on subscriptions.

Since acquiring UpCounsel, we’ve doubled revenue in just 12 months and seen our market opportunity increase by 10X. By investing now, you get a rare early opportunity to grow your investment as we grow.

We’re raising on WeFunder because we want all our fans and users to be investors and co-owners. Legal for the People - an Idea Whose Time Has Come.

When you invest in UpCounsel via our Wefunder page, you get access to our limited time investor perks, ranging up to $7,200 in value. Take a look:

Description of Perks:

Investors may choose whether they would like to receive either the attorney perk or the client perk at their given level of investment. Here’s a description of what each entails:

For Clients:

• The UpCounsel Startup Subscription gives business owners and founders concierge-level services that facilitate attorney selection and engagement to meet their short-term needs and help them forecast long-term business and legal challenges to maintain complains and keep costs low. Minimum contract length is 6 months.
• Lunch with the CEO can be done in-person or virtual, at the investor’s discretion.

For Attorneys:

• Direct Connect allows attorneys to have prospective clients directly book with them through their UpCounsel profile, social media, or other sites -- making the process faster, easier, and more transparent. All invoicing, billing, processing, and collection services through UpCounsel are included!
• Authority Builder allows attorneys to enhance their reach and credibility by allowing article placement on our high-ranking UpCounsel domain to drive traffic, build prestige, and drive engagement. Includes Direct Connect and all associated benefits!

Exit Plan:

We’re staunch believers that companies should only raise money if they are firmly committed to delivering a return for their investors. As such, our goal is to bring the company to the public markets within 5 years time. We can’t predict the future, but our management team now works for YOU — and we will work tirelessly to get you the best return on your investment.

*Forward-looking projections cannot be guaranteed 

Valuation:

It’s also worth mentioning that despite being told that we could raise at twice the valuation cap we selected (or more! Many SAAS companies are raising at 20-40x ARR right now), we chose to price this round very conservatively at 7.5x our revenue run rate.

We chose this for two reasons. The first is that we want our earliest supporters to get a great deal, so that you feel valued and are properly rewarded for believing in us.

The second is that our executive team has been around the block, and we’ve seen what happens when entrepreneurs over-value their companies — creating a lot of problems down the line for future financings and/or exits, and killing many a business. By pricing conservatively, we aim to set the stage for the best possible outcomes — for everyone involved.

We can’t wait to have you along for the ride.