University of Birmingham Law graduates Hung Nguyen and Muhammad Syed have created their own law-tech start-up with a vision to improve the legal system and help empower legal service users through technology.
The two co-founders work on the business remotely - Hung who graduated with a degree in International Business in 2021 is based in the UK while Muhammed, who graduated a year earlier with a degree in Law with Business, now works from his home in Dubai.
The business also includes a wider team of Law professionals, tech experts and legal advisors and is one of the start-up businesses based at the University of Birmingham's Elevate incubator location at The Exchange in Centenary Square. We invited Hung to talk about start-up life in Birmingham and how the company operates with founders in different time zones.
Hung: As a law student who sat an intercalated year in computer science, it felt natural to consider the interface between law and technology. If I was given £1 for every time someone said ‘You do law, right? Can you solve this issue I have or recommend someone to me?’, I mean I still wouldn’t be a millionaire, but I’d probably have like £56. Anyways, 56 times was enough for me to actively do something about this, especially since every conversation ended with ‘unfortunately, I don’t know anyone, sorry!’ or ‘Yeah, I’ll take a look’ and then proceed to ask someone else the same questions that were asked to me.
I realised that there was too little know-how and too much friction when it came to just untangling our legal problems and finding help. Whether it was temporal, geographical, monetary or language barriers, these barriers prevented many individuals I knew from seeking support as soon as they should have - it was
disempowering.
So, in 2021, Legal Lorikeet was born with the vision of helping individuals get a leg up and start resolving their legal issues more comfortably and confidently. I always wanted to learn new things and create new things, and through entrepreneurship, I have an opportunity to do this, blending my experience, skills and interests.
Our latest web app to release this June, willit, is designed to help users troubleshoot legal issues at a simple and understandable level, and then source the relevant professional legal help. We want our products to encourage sustainable practice, where through their use, legal service users gain better discernment about their legal issues and resolving them. In turn, consumers will feel much more empowered and comfortable in approaching legal service providers, and this widens access to legal services.
Having team members in different countries is beneficial when it comes to gaining additional insight on how professional legal services and procuring those services work in those countries; it gives us inspiration for our product direction. Of course, working together in person normally brings an energy about it but for Legal Lorikeet working remotely has made things more flexible and convenient for us... and productivity is still going strong.
Many of the team work on Legal Lorikeet part-time, in between academic or career pursuits so there is a balance of working together and sharing ideas through things like Slack or Notion to keep organised.
Through the UoB Elevate scheme spearheaded by the B-Enterprising team, we've had access to funding, office space and a community of wonderful start-ups and mentors to learn from. I truly believe that without this, we couldn't have progressed this far so soon. It was only because we had access to the support from B-Enterprising that we came across opportunities for investment, and we successfully raised £10,000 worth of investment to develop and launch our MVP app for the end of June!
What are the best and worst aspects of running your own start-up business?
As a start-up, we don't have the same leverage as large existing companies do when it comes to reputation, decades worth of industry knowledge, personnel and resources - and therein lies the problem - we don't have a prescribed formula that guarantees us that people will want what we have to offer.
To be competitive, or survive even, we must rapidly cycle through learning what people want and developing our product/service accordingly.
Building something in such an uncertain and risky environment can be stressful at times, because you just want to know whether your efforts will come to fruition. However, it's this uncertainty that pushes you to work hard and keep strategising, which I really enjoy.
Name one thing you wish you had known before starting?
I wish I appreciated how long it could take to build up a business - and that's not a bad thing. When you have an idea or have just set up a start-up, you have a lot of dreams about making it big, having lots of money, and working with your friends within months or a year.
However, you quickly realise how much grit and consistency it takes, especially when you have other academic, professional or personal commitments. In turn, there comes a lot of stress and pressure because you feel like you should be further down the line with your business.
However, recently, I've come to accept and appreciate that it's better to sustainably make my start-up a part of my life and to not always rush. Consistently putting in the time, even if it's just a few hours a week, will always bring you closer to those dreams you had when you first created the start-up.
What has been the biggest takeaway from your experience so far?
The amount of personal and professional development I've gone through to date. Creating a start-up means that you'll wear many different hats at one point, and the interdisciplinary nature of it all really pushes you. Big challenges like that force us to get serious, innovative and think differently, which brings out the best in us. All the toiling and work have not only enhanced my skills or 'employability competencies', it's really helped me mature as a person. I'd encourage everyone to do something that challenges them and brings out the best in them, whether you'd find that in a start-up or not.
We have just released the MVP for our web app, willit, in June. It is imperative that we first gauge the level of interest in our product before developing it further or pivoting. We are looking for as many people as possible to just feedback to us about our product in any capacity. You can visit our Legal Lorikeet website to find out more or connect with me on Linkedin: Hung Nguyen.
We are always looking for anyone who wants to contribute to our work, whether that's a quick comment, working alongside us, or recommending us to others.
With thanks to Hung Nguyen
Edited by Bob Lee
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