Patrick Rogers, co-founder and CEO of Clara
Aware that start-ups usually struggle to manage their legal function, not to mention the associated costs, former corporate lawyer and now entrepreneur Patrick Rogers launched Clara in 2018 out of Dubai and is now venturing into the U.S. market through a strategic partnership with leading law firm Mintz. This exciting development marks a significant milestone for Clara and opens up new opportunities for tech entrepreneurs seeking to streamline their legal processes.
In a nutshell, Clara’s LegalOS gives founders the tools they need to automate their start-ups’ legal work so they can get back to building.
“We saw how massively founders struggled with the legal work. The subject matter is intimidating, it’s boring, it’s administrative… Founders were terrified of how expensive it was gonna be. We thought there had to be a better way, and that better way involved creating an intuitive software product,” Rogers explains.
Indeed, Clara helps founders intuitively navigate complex legal concepts and tasks, including company incorporation, drafting agreements, managing cap tables, and structuring data rooms - thus reducing guesswork and lowering legal costs. It also acts as a collaboration tool for founders, investors, and lawyers, enabling seamless information sharing and efficient teamwork within the global start-up ecosystem.
This in no way means that Clara could replace legal professionals; rather, the platform aims to enhance communication and efficiency. “Every start-up should have a great lawyer. We just think that, in the opening few years of a start-up’s existence, they can be far less reliant on those lawyers if they’re on Clara than they currently need to be.”
Patrick Rogers on Clara’s approach: “You’re never gonna replace lawyers with tech. We don’t think we're going to replace lawyers. That’s why we put such a strong emphasis on our law firm partnerships.”
Going global
The recent strategic partnership with Mintz, which was facilitated through Antler, a renowned venture builder and the official law firm partner for all Antler companies in the U.S. market, is a big deal.
Not only does it allow Clara to enter the U.S. market for the first time, but it’s also the expression of the two companies’ shared values, vision, and commitment to supporting early-stage companies with creative, comprehensive solutions. “We look at the world in a very similar way, [with] similar values and a strong belief in the power of start-ups to change the world for the better,” says Rogers, who goes on to explain, “We want to ensure that we’re always able to provide founders with a total solution.”
What’s more, Clara’s U.S. entry aligns with its efforts to simplify the legal onboarding process for accelerator programs at a global scale, Rogers explains. “As soon as you’ve been formally accepted into an accelerator program, you will be directed to Clara to fulfill all of the legal onboarding requirements,” he says.
That way, Clara can live up to this plan to revolutionize the legal landscape for tech startups and foster greater collaboration within the global start-up ecosystem.
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