Eunice G. Buhler

At Costanoa Ventures, we pride ourselves on identifying and supporting exceptional founders poised to create impactful, lasting change. Hona is a shining example, driven by a trio of extremely talented founders: Manny Griffiths, Joshua Christensen, and Matt McClellan. They each bring unique, differentiated expertise to the table, and Amy Cheetham and I are extremely excited to partner with them. There are approximately 450,000 law firms in the United States, with half of those firms being B2C - think personal injury, mass tort, or immigration law as opposed to BigLaw. One of the reasons we love how Hona is tackling this market is their focus on B2C law firms and product excellence - B2B firms are historically difficult to sell brand new software products into, but B2C firms are completely different buyers. Oftentimes there's just a handful of lawyers and paralegals in a partnership, and any piece of technology they can use to give them an edge would be valuable. 44% of negative Google reviews on law firms directly reference poor communication as the reason for a negative experience, and the number 1 reason for Attorney Bar complaints in the U.S. is "lack of communication". On the lawyer's side, attorneys, paralegals and legal assistants spend an average of 7.4 hours per week on unnecessary updates, redundant communication, and activities that aren't directly contributing towards getting a client's case solved. Manny and the team at Hona are working to change all of that. Hona delivers a tightly-integrated communications platform to help facilitate better communication between law firms and their clients. During legal proceedings, client communications tend to be a large resource-stressor for law firms. Clients will frequently call firms for case updates, legal explanations, or general administrative questions that tend to eat away at firm resources without providing any additional progress toward case resolution. Hona exists to ease that burden - it’s a platform that allows law firms to efficiently communicate with their clients over text, easily build customizable web pages and embed videos, and share information on case status and basic legal process education. This crucial communication processes allow attorneys to focus on their job – moving cases forward, while keeping their clients informed and educated. If you're a lawyer dealing with these problems - don't hesitate to reach out to us or the Hona team! It's a privilege to work with Hona on this journey. The company has been growing at a rapid pace, and they're delivering meaningful technology to help people get through legal proceedings in a much more fluid, transparent, and easy process. Manny, Joshua, and Matt are exceptional founders whose combined skills and dedication to continuous learning position them perfectly to lead Hona to success. They're just getting started, and we can't wait to see what they'll achieve.

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I hope you'll join me on June 13th where I’ll be presenting on the topic of “How to Change No to Yes in Contract Negotiations” for the @ContractNerds community. This is a topic that I love, and I'm excited to discuss it with my terrific co-panelists.   What you'll learn: ✔️ Winning strategies to change a “no” to a “yes” during a complex or urgent negotiation, particularly where you don’t have as much leverage as your counterpart. ✔️ Strategic tactics to successfully respond to refusals to negotiate such as “we don’t accept any redlines” or “we cannot agree to that change.” ✔️ How to customize your negotiation strategy based on demographics, technology, benchmarking data, and other real-life variances. ✔️ Plus, panelists will answer questions submitted in the registration form so if you have a specific negotiation question, please be sure to include it in the form below! REGISTER HERE: https://lnkd.in/eV7i9b94

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I disagree. Look, sure it’s a little confusing at times, and the category boundaries aren’t always clear, particularly in the pre-Series B stages. You can have one company raising $50,000, another raising $5M, and yet another raising $500M, and all call it #Seed. That said, I think it’s easy to get stuck on the #AI outliers and their outsized checks, and miss that for the vast majority of #startups, the current demarcations actually work pretty well. What won’t work is this proposal. Woof: “At the very early stages, Boldstart Ventures’ Ed Sim has suggested the introduction of “inception rounds” to redefine what a first fundraise really means. Inception rounds would focus on startups at the beginning of their lifecycle, working on developing a product and making their first hires. They would start with a “discovery round” for first-time founders who are still at the idea stage and would be sub-$2 million, progressing to the “classic round” when a founder has validated their product concept (at between $3 million and $5 million). For the serial founder, “jumbo rounds” would offer more capital and scope to expand at a faster pace. Redefining pre-seed and seed in this way would offer more transparency about where a startup actually is in its journey.” Hard No 😎 #DWProf

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Non-competes might be kaput. What does that mean for start-ups? Many start-ups may not feel the impact of this change. But, should the FTC’s ban hold up, start-ups should put more energy towards: 👉Retention Retention is already crucial in a start-up where losing 1 or 2 key employees can significantly hinder progress. But now there’s a new worry: What happens when someone with equity in your company leaves, keeps the equity, then works for or founds a competitor? To get in front of this issue, be more conscious about employees’ equity vesting terms. Keeping to multi-year vesting schedules will be even more useful if non-competes are not available. The FTC’s ban is still under review, but discipline and focus on retention and being rigorous about multi-year vesting schedules will help your start-up either way. What vesting schedules do you use for your team? #noncompete #FTC #startup #founder #legal #equity

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Spot on article by Michele Gorman of Law360. I agree that AI is the most prominent trend for in-house legal teams this year. Over a year ago (wow!), I led the development of Everlaw's Generative AI Guidelines for our employees, encouraging use of GenAI -- responsibly. Our Legal team at Everlaw is embracing #GenAI to help us find efficiencies and continue to deliver excellence. We're seeing more of our customers interested in the efficiencies of GenAI. It's an exciting time to be a lawyer and in #legaltech! Jessica Norman's note resonated with me:  "For corporate legal teams, AI offers immense potential for efficiency gains through the automation of routine tasks, enhanced decision-making with contract analytics and analysis, and improved knowledge management. [. . .] As this technology rapidly advances, the risks of failing to adopt are becoming greater than the risks of embracing it."  Check it out:

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Yesterday at the Flywheel conference, Elizabeth Scallon reminded us that the number one thing founders need is capital, and then more capital. Yet when it comes to early stage financing, women founders - especially women of color - still get table scraps. A few years ago in The FBomb Breakfast Club we looked around the room and realized we couldn't wait on the VC landscape to change (it won't). Instead, we decided to do a better job of tapping into each other for early funding -- the kind of money that enables women with promising business ideas to build and test. And that's how FBomb Angels was born. We've been quietly building space for women to learn about and gain practice angel investing - and we're ready to get loud about it. FBomb Angels is a community first and foremost - a sisterhood of sorts where we support each other in becoming kickass investors helping to build the companies we want to see in the world. If you've been curious about angel investing, but haven't known where to start... If you've dabbled already but haven't really found your place in the startup ecosystem... If you still feel like a novice and want to learn together with other women who believe rigor and values are not mutually exclusive, FBomb Angels might be the community for you. Want to know more? Join us online or over mimosas this spring and let's talk! https://lnkd.in/gbVCK9EW

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A marketplace to get the best litigation loans for your clients.

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Steno's new AI product lets attorneys "talk to" transcripts and works like magic--what used to take hours or days now takes seconds... Excited to double down with an additional $46m to launch more products and even more geographies! #legaltech #AI Greg Hong Dylan Ruga Dan Anderson Jason Fiedler Mark Shtrakhman

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🚨 PSA 🚨 Quarterly reminder: Know your billing realization and collection rates! Clio - Cloud-Based Legal Technology's 2023 Legal Trends Report showed a forecasted billing realization rate of 86% and a collection rate of 89%. This means the average firm converts only 76.5% of recorded time into actual revenue. 😳 Get to know your numbers and take action to improve them. 📈 #AltFee #FixedFee #TheModernLawFirm

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More articles! This is part of our Accelerate Law content series for startups founders and people in and around the startup scene. Why? We're continually working with our team on building our brand in the startup/scaleup space, including online for SEO and communicating better on our website what we're all about. This one is about reverse vesting - the concept that if someone leaves, they don't get to keep all of their shares. Have a look if you've ever wondered what happens in the scenario that you start a business with a co-founder/business partner, and they decide/need to leave....🚂 🛫 🚡

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One major mistake that founders make is ignoring industry regulations. Ignorance is not bliss here - disregard the rules and you will see how penalties or shutdowns could mercilessly kill your momentum. I've seen too many fired-up founders get blindsided by regulatory roadblocks that could've been dodged (or at times, they even chose to ignore). Data privacy, sector compliances, employment laws, IP protection - do a deep dive into what applies to you. Don't treat the legal details like a nagging chore - it can actually be your competitive edge. As you scale up, robust processes to stay compliant are an absolute must. A practical tip for founders: Regulatory gaps often also decrease the risk appetite of investors who are evaluating your business - they will often ask you to fix the issues before they invest (which can at times push the investment by months) or you get sent down the road of providing them comfort through indemnities etc., which can at times really take a monetary hit on your business. #regulations #legal #startup #founders

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🚀 **Mid-Year Reflections: Surprises in the Legal Industry for 2024** As we navigate through 2024, the legal industry has seen some unexpected yet exciting developments, particularly in lateral hiring and the rapid embracement of artificial intelligence (AI). Here are some key insights: 🔍 **Heightened Partner Competition** This year, we've witnessed a surge in lateral hiring activities, with many firms shifting from traditional lockstep compensation models to merit-based systems. The competitive offers in major markets reflect the intense competition for top talent. Firms across the industry have strategically onboarded new lateral partners, emphasizing cultural fit and successful integration over merely offering high compensation. 🤖 **Rapid AI Proliferation** The legal sector is embracing AI like never before. Generative AI models, such as ChatGPT, are being adopted widely, transforming how legal services are delivered. Forward-thinking firms are integrating AI through various innovative initiatives to enhance efficiency and ensure quality control. Others are exploring AI's potential or leveraging existing AI market offerings to stay ahead. These developments underscore the dynamic nature of our industry, highlighting the importance of agility, strategic thinking, and innovation. As we move forward, it will be crucial to stay adaptive and embrace these changes to better serve our clients and meet the evolving demands of the legal landscape. Do you think the rise in lateral hiring and the rapid adoption of AI will complement or contradict each other in the coming years? Share your thoughts! #LegalIndustry #AI #LateralHiring #Innovation #LegalTech #LawFirms #2024Trends

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Love this article by Jordan Furlong. It does a couple of things – provides a thoughtful perspective on the importance of language in how we frame behavior and mindsets, and it highlights a simple fact: "Everything lawyers do in a law firm is either directly billable to a client today, or it’s laying the foundations for billable work tomorrow."  Highly recommend Jordan's newsletter. Always a worthwhile read. #activators take note.

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“Under the hood, these new legal #AI tools use retrieval-augmented generation (#RAG) to produce their results, a method that many tout as a potential solution to the #Hallucination #Problem. In theory, RAG allows a system to first retrieve the relevant source material and then use it to generate the correct response. In practice, however, we show that even RAG systems are not hallucination-free.” https://lnkd.in/eZMVcQ46

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New to legal tech and/or legal operations? I've got just the thing for you. Check out this "cheat sheet" that I worked on with Joe Cohen. Consider it a jumpstart for your exploration of this exciting and dynamic space! #legaltech #innovation #law #business #learning

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Really enjoyed this article from First Round Capital, Irene Liu and Hypergrowth GC! It's great to see leaders in the VC community educating founders on how to work w/ attorneys. A quick summary of the takeaways for early-stage startup founders: ▶ Legal advice should be user-friendly. 👋 “Contrary to popular belief, lawyers can and should be able to have a conversation with you about your business in plain English ... If you are leaving the initial call feeling confused or misunderstood, that’s not on you. That’s a red flag that this lawyer and firm isn’t going to communicate with you in the way you need. If that’s the case, then walk away and find another firm that can communicate clearly with you." ▶ Your attorney should understand your business, product and vision. 🧠 “A good business lawyer should be taking the time to listen to deeply understand you and your business — which means asking you questions ... "If they are rushing you off the phone, or even worse — refusing to hop on a call at all, nix them.” ▶ It's your job, as a founder, to take control of the relationship. 💪 You can manage legal costs and get clearer, faster advice by: (i) being clear about the deliverables you expect (ie, "never ask for written memos"); (ii) setting budgets on time spent on a task (ie, "please let us know your progress and pause on further work once you've billed 5 hours); and (iii) sending your lawyer context ahead of time before asking abstract questions that may cause confusion. A savvy attorney will pre-empt these issues, aligning on deliverables up-front, clarifying timelines and asking for context at every step. Feel free to tag someone who could benefit from reading this article below. 🔌 (Relevant links in comments)

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Founders (especially underrepresented founders) are facing bleak prospects for obtaining venture capital investments today. The old adage passed down from our ancestors of the need to be twice as good as our white male counterparts to obtain the same opportunities has never rang more true than in today’s economic environment. The numbers don’t lie and complaining about it has limited usefulness. We must rise to the occasion, build better companies and be twice as good as the competition to succeed. Tough times require tough people to overcome the extraordinary challenges of the day, and I celebrate those founders who are doing just that. “For example, all-female teams and teams with minority members are booking fewer meetings and raising less capital than their all-male and all-majority counterparts according to DocSend’s extensive research on VC engagement with founders. In our recent conversation, Justin Izzo, DocSend’s Lead Data and Trends Analyst, noted that the gains historically underrepresented founders had made have now been largely pared away with all-female teams booking 51% fewer meetings than before.” #venturecapital #vcs #business #blackenterprise #blackfounders #womenfounders #entrepreneur

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🙋‍♂️When should you take the leap and form a company for your venture? 👉Not too early, but before it's too late. 😐 Helpful, I know, but that's the real answer. Check our latest installment of Windward to learn ☝️Critical milestones *before which* you'll want to have a corporation ✌️Common situations when it's too early to justify the costs of formation https://lnkd.in/gjsiSgwJ

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When I get asked to look at pitch decks for startups my advice almost always starts with “make it shorter”. Why? VCs spent a grand total of 2 minutes and 12 seconds reviewing pitch decks these days, and that number is declining. If you can’t deliver a message that has impact in two minutes, you aren’t being heard. #startups #pitchdeck #founders

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