Your Legal Tech Product Is Better Than Harvey and Legora. So What?

Legal tech is now one of the most crowded markets to compete in. VC money is flowing into the sector because a lot of smart people see the same enormous opportunity.

Meanwhile, legal teams are overwhelmed by the number of options. They are simply too busy to try every product. Legal innovation leaders can barely get lawyers to properly test the tools they are already piloting, for reasons I won't get into here.

Having a good product is still the minimum bar. But what happens after you’ve built it?

One of my biggest takeaways from an earlier conversation with Preston Clark from SimpleDocs:

"The goal is not necessarily to become number one. It is to become part of the conversation."

If you're curious about other words of wisdom from Preston, you can check out our conversation on YouTube.

Conversation with Preston Clark on building legal AI without VC money

With that in mind, here are a few GTM strategies every legal tech founder can learn from to get into buyer conversations:

1. Don't just say you're great. Get other people to say it.

Price tag: 💰(free)-💰💰

Start with your customers, then build credibility through independent voices your buyers already trust.

GC AI does this particularly well. I hear the product mentioned organically by their customers across completely separate conversations. That reputation was not built through ad placements alone. It came from community building, AI classes for in-house lawyers, and many other GTM efforts working together.

What legal tech founders can do:

• On a budget: ask your happiest customers to tell their story on podcasts and panels, and show up consistently in the communities where your buyers already hang out. Referrals and warm intros cost nothing but follow-through.
• With money: run your own classes, hire a community lead, host events, build a proper customer advocacy programme.

2. Own a niche.

Price tag: 💰

The legal swiss army knife that can do everything- Legal OS, and contract review solutions are becoming extremely saturated. But there are still emerging categories with far less competition.

Legal research is one, as legal technologist Elgar Weijtmans has pointed out. There are many other hidden gems.

Send me the right DM and I may share a few.

What legal tech founders can do:

• On a budget: this is the cheapest strategy on the list because it is mostly a positioning decision. The main cost is talking to enough buyers to find the gap, and the discipline to say no to everything else.
• With money: commission proper market research, or buy your way into a niche through a small acquisition.

3. Give the legal community something it genuinely values.

Price tag: 💰 (free)

Don't just publish another thinly disguised marketing campaign, like a benchmark you ran yourself where you rank number one and beat all your competitors.

Share something people would find useful even if they never bought your product. I find the legal AI guides Colin S. Levy shares valuable. Lawyers learn from them, trust the expertise behind them and, through that, discover Malbek.

What legal tech founders can do:

• On a budget: write guides from expertise you already have. One useful checklist that lawyers actually save beats ten polished campaigns they scroll past.
• With money: fund original research, proper reports, and a dedicated content team. Just remember that budget buys production quality, not usefulness.

4. Build your own brand, or borrow the credibility of one people already recognise.

Price tag: 💰(free) - 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰

Scott Stevenson does this very well. People engage with his thinking not because they are already interested in Spellbook, but because he says smart and memorable things, such as calling out legal tech's "ARR problem". They then discover Spellbook through him. And the distribution is largely free.

Of course, money can also buy brand awareness.

I initially did not understand Legora's campaign with Jude Law. Over time, I've come to appreciate it from a brand-strategy perspective.

Legora was already well known in Europe, but had less recognition in the US than Harvey. So when it moved to compete seriously in the US market, it borrowed the recognition of someone almost everyone knows:

Jude Law.

And the more lawyers debate the campaign, the better it works. Those who have never heard of Legora get curious: what is Legora? Those who already know them draw a different conclusion: they must be doing well if they can afford Jude Law.

What legal tech founders can do:

• On a budget: a founder brand costs nothing but time, consistency, and a thick skin. Post what you are actually learning, not what sounds safe. The distribution is free, which is exactly why it is underpriced.
• With money: borrow recognition. That does not have to mean a Jude Law budget. Respected practitioners as advisors, well-chosen partnerships, and trusted industry voices are the mid-tier version. Celebrity campaigns are the top shelf, and they only make sense when you have the war chest and a market-entry moment to justify them.

To Sum up...

In a crowded market, the best product does not automatically win. First, buyers have to know you exist. Then they need a reason to trust you. Only then might they actually try what you built.