G: Tell us about your business: What do you do? What did inspire you to start?
Rocket Lawyer help small businesses, families and individuals with their legal issues. We do this with smart online technology that guides you through the creation of legal contracts, step-by-step, and we have lawyers nationwide on call to help with other legal issues and advice. Most importantly we keep the legal help simple and affordable because that’s what people expect these days and deserve. We do this because all too often businesses and people put off getting legal help because they are afraid it will be complicated and expensive to obtain. This is very risky, leaving you or your business vulnerable, and likely not complying with the law. That’s not the way it should be. Legal contracts and lawyers should help businesses to do business successfully and help protect families from legal issues that inevitably arise.
G: What is unique about what you do?
We’re affordable, and affordable starts at ‘free’. We provide free guides, written by lawyers, which discuss in simple language the key issues facing businesses and families. Furthermore, let’s say you’re about to employ someone for the first time, then you can try Rocket Lawyer for free and create your first employment contract online in minutes. In fact you can try any of our legal documents for free with our free trial. And again, UK lawyers have written them all. You can even ask legal questions on the site, and we’ll connect you with the right lawyer at the press of a button to get your answer.
G: What would you say has been your most memorable experience while developing your business?
The freemium model is such a powerful way to promote your services and find new users, and if you get it right then you’ll end up with more paying customers in the long run. When we introduced our free trial in the summer this year it transformed our UK business. Lots of people and businesses are creating legal documents and talking to lawyers now on Rocket Lawyer, and many like the site enough to pay us to continue using it for their ongoing legal tasks and issues. Once you’ve given it a try, and found out how easy is it is to create a job offer letter online and share it with your prospective employee, then you’ll be creating the employment contract next, and then the employment policies and procedures that you know you need to but haven’t got round to yet.
G: Why do you choose Shoreditch to run your business?
We are a small tech company. Where are most of the small tech companies in the UK? In Shoreditch. Where do most talented people want to work and play in London? In Shoreditch. It’s a fun place to work and it’s an amazingly innovative and creative part of London, where loads of new companies are starting out and bringing great new products to market. These are just the type of companies that we can help too.
G: Who/what are your favorite CEOs/Businesses in Shoreditch?
My background is user experience design. If I was still doing that role full time (and a bit younger), I’d want to work at ustwo (www.ustwo.com). They’re a digital design agency founded in 2004 who are now pretty big and rapidly going global. They produce great design, but it’s the working environment and the way they inspire their people that I like. Have at look at their site and tell me you wouldn’t want to work there. Also, Mills, one of the co-founders, has a healthy dose of bonkers that should be encouraged, and I’m certain is.
G: What are your favorite places in Shoreditch? (Where do you hang-out/ dining/ going out?)
The places in Shoreditch we go most often are Franco’s for lunch on Rivington Street and cocktails at Be At One on Old Street. Franco’s can make a tasty pasta dish from scratch in 3 minutes. And Be At One have a happy hour that goes on dangerously too long.
G: What does the future has in store for your business?
Rocket Lawyer started out in San Francisco helping US people with their legal issues online. We’re now doing the same in the UK. There are more countries out there that we can help.
