This is the second in a series of profiles of the people behind active startups. If you are interested in sharing your experiences, or want to suggest a question to add, ping me at mbay@stanford.edu.

DEBORAH BARON: ALIGN MATTERS

Note: Align Matters’ CEO, CTO and founder Alan Nathanson and Deborah Baron will be featured in “Round One” of Tuesday’s “Legal Disruption Lighting Rounds” at ALM’s Legaltech West Coast at the Hyatt Regency [Embarcadero] hotel in San Francisco, at 10:30-11:30. Align Matters will also be part of  “The Startup Showcase” where eight companies that are participating in the CodeX track will also exhibit at booth 512, located in front of the Grand Ballroom, on July 13-14. For information, visit www.legaltechshow.com.

Past jobs: CEO North America, general manager, information governance, and chief marketing office at Nuix. Vice president, legal and complicance solutions, at HP Autonomy. Director, product marketing, at Zantaz (acquired by HP).

Education: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, M.B.A., Occidental College undergrad, B.A., economics, minor in math.

Name of start-up and launch date: Align Matters, we went live in Feb. 2015. It is hosted in the secure Microsoft Azure cloud, in the BizSpark startup program.  (See video here).

Is this your first start-up? Align is my third startup. My first was Sentius Corp., in 1999, I was employee #13 and the company’s first female executive. Our product, Richlink is a web-based database linking and embedding technology that adds content to websites. It keeps visitors on the page longer with user-activated pop-ups. Our customers included Apple Inc. and Asahi Shimbun (the second largest national newspaper in Japan). Once the Internet bubble burst it was tough to get the next round of funding. The founder,  Marc Bookman, has moved to Asia and continues to license our patents and is building a new Internet company.

My second was Zantaz—a roller coaster ride that gave me a deep appreciation for smart leadership, vision and true teamwork. I joined in 2001 to launch an open source SaaS archiving technology for Wall Street banks. We had 40 people, a handful of customers and needed another revenue stream. I took Zantaz into the e-discovery market; we grew revenue four-fold and had 400+ personnel when we were acquired by HP/Autonomy.

How does Align help lawyers? Think of Align as a GPS for legal matters—every legal matter is like a journey. Align helps lawyers plan and navigate the journey and clarify business objectives. Business objectives drive the plan: it coordinates budget, timeline, calendar, resources and risks. Align provides all participants—both inside and outside teams—with real-time status reports and alerts. This helps lawyers manage the matter, avoiding painful budget overruns and conflicts over invoices. These built-in analytics help lawyers analyze administrative issues and make adjustments on the fly to meet business objectives.

What problem does it solve? General counsel and legal operations managers tell us that buying legal services often seems like an uneven playing field. They want to know how much a matter is expected to cost and what other clients are paying, and they don’t want overruns. CFOs and CEOs have the same agenda.

What legal segment is Align targeting? It  addresses both corporate law departments and law firms. We are reinventing how the community consumes legal services and collaborates on matters.

What does Align cost?  Our introductory subscription price is $100/month for one matter. This includes one law firm and unlimited users for the in-house team. We also offer a 10-pack of matters for $1,000/month. Above 100 matters we provide custom quotes.

Do you have funding yet? Align has angel funding from general counsel of global companies, a former managing partner of AmLaw 100 firm, C-suite executives of technology and legal services companies and data analytics entrepreneurs.

What is your biggest challenge re: the start-up? The classic issue in legal— slow adoption of new technology. The legal community is the opposite of early adopters. Early adopters are like puppies—wave a new toy in front of them and they come running. Late adopters are like mature cats, they’re wary of change and too dignified to come running. You have to meet them on their terms and be patient.

What is next? Next is achieving a critical mass of matters on the platform to generate useful and accurate historical benchmarks for customers.

What have you learned that you wish you had known 5 years ago? That data analytics would be the foundation for the future. It generates transparency, insights and more reliable, quality information to empower collaborating, growth and better performance.

Who influenced you more than anyone else? My first strategy professor in grad school, Professor Cynthia Montgomery, influenced me the most on the professional side. She introduced me to visual models to analyze and describe the dynamics of an industry. For me, the visualizations are key to understanding. Montgomery fundamentally changed the way I think about market dynamics, competition, growth and how to make strategic decisions. (Harvard Business School lured her away from Kellogg.)

He has a unique gift for connecting with people, finding common ground and moving the ball forward. Kirk is one of the best people I’ve ever worked with. He’s now CEO of FormVerse.

Steve King was CEO of Zantaz, and now is a board member and advisor to technology companies. From Steve I learned quiet confidence. He engenders confidence in his people, his plan and from his board.He gave me a great opportunity and trusted me, and extended that trust to the board. He knew how and when to tap into my strengths. I will always appreciate his quiet, solid support and guidance.

 

What book changed your life? Geoffrey Moore’s books. His first and perhaps most widely known book was “Crossing the Chasm.” It’s about marketing and selling disruptive products to mainstream customers. At HP, I was lucky to have the opportunity to bring Geoffrey Moore to France to do a workshop for our team.

What’s your favorite vacation destination? The south of France.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs? Trust your gut, follow your vision.

Favorite musician? If I had to choose just one it would be Melissa Etheridge. She is a life force, her music is playful and soulful, and she’s amazing in concert. I once convinced a French friend to come with me to see her in a small venue in Paris. You can feel her meaning through her music, even if you can’t understand the language she is speaking.

Favorite quote: “If I had more time, this would have been shorter.” —Benjamin Franklin.

What’s your mantra? You can do anything you put your mind to.

What did you learn from your parents or family? Keep your feet on the ground, but follow your dreams.

Who would you want to be sitting next to you if you got stuck for 3 hours on the NYC 4 train or on the tarmac in a 737?  Jimmy Fallon or Tina Fey. Both have the quickest minds, and use it for laughter.

Find Deborah Baron: Twitter: @deborahpbaron. Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/deborahpbaron
Find Align Matters:  Website: www.alignmatters.com. Email: align@alignmatters.com.

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a member of the California bar. She will be a judge on the CodeX track at Legaltech West Coast. She retired from ALM, where she was editor-in-chief of Law Technology News, in February. Email: mbay@stanford.edu. Twitter: @MonicaBay.