Meet Michael Friedmann, 41, the CEO, Client Management, of QNC GmbH, which includes 123recht.net (launched in 2000) and frag-einen-anwalt.de, (debuted in 2004). The company is based at his birthplace and current home: Hannover, Germany. “One company, one passion, one job,” he says.

 

Friedmann and his Toronto-based brother Daniel Friedman (CTO) founded the company in 1999, with Arne Schinkel (CEO, Content).

The team attends our weekly CodeX meetings. “CodeX is a great microcosmos for legal tech activities,” says Michael. “I love to learn about the great things other people are working on. I wish we had something similar here in Germany.”

Social studies: Websites: 123recht.net and frag-einen-anwalt.de
Linkedin. Twitter: @michafriedmann

• I have quit my activities at Facebook in January 2015. Not because of privacy concerns (as a lot of other people in Germany) but because of the time I have spend on Facebook. Instead of that, I am now calling and visiting my friends more often. Even those abroad.

Education: I studied law and business administration in Hannover, but dropped out of business school just shortly before my master thesis, because I was concentration on the startup. I attended the Université in 1997 and Leibniz Universitat Hannover from 1993-1997 (law).

The Bar: I am a lawyer with German bar admission.

Past significant jobs: I have always been self-employed. During my studies I have sold kitchens, Persian carpets and harvester, and all kinds of other stuff. It taught me that you can sell anything if there is a need.

Are these your first start-ups? No, we have founded several other legal tech startups, including renocash, 2006 (payment tool for lawyers and notaries), which was sold in 2010 to BCB Processing. In 2010, we created marktplatz-recht.de (social network for lawyers). It is still running.

What problems do your startups solve? We give people instant access to legal services through do-it-youself or legal professionals. Legal questions are solved within minutes (frag-einen-anwalt.de), customized legal documents are created through an online interview (123recht.net). Users save time and money on legal services.

Audience: Our customers are 80% consumers and 20% small businesses.

Are the products currently on the market? The service is online and running. Customized legal documents run from free up to 15 Euro. Legal questions are solved from 25 Euro on. Standardized legal tasks (such as claiming money, checking contracts, write contracts, etc.) start from 30 Euro.

What inspired your team to pursue this startup? We saw a terrific lack of access to the legal services in Germany. Many people do not go after their legal problem because they fear lawyers, courts and costs. We wanted to deliver good service, transparency and fast access for a reasonable price.

Do you have funding yet? We are totally boot-strapped but profitable. But at this point we are looking for funding to scale our business. If anyone who reads this is interested please contact me. ; )

Your biggest challenge: To deliver a homogenous service experience to the client. The biggest problem is explaining to lawyers that clients who get same day delivery from Amazon are not used to wait five days to get results from a lawyer.

What do you need right now? In six months? In a year? Now I need a good advice on how to choose the right investor. In six month I need smart people who will support our management team and help us change our business model. In one year I need to take the right decision about where to start our internationalization.

What have you learned that you wish you knew five years ago? You won’t receive any help from anyone unless you ask for it.

 

Aside from family, who most influenced you: One of the most influencing moments was April 2009 when I attended Richard Susskind’s keynote at the American Bar Association’s Techshow in Chicago. That was the turning point when I understood that the legal industry is in a total change.

Every day I spend about 1one to two hours reading blogs and news. This is where I get my inspiration (and from conferences).

 

Book that changed your life: No book has changed my life—but every single one influences me somehow. I read roughly 20 to 30 books a year. I always change between reading a classic novel, a new novel and a non-fiction. The last books a if finished were:

• “Soumission” by Michel Houellebecq about a fictional rise of a Muslim party in France.
• “The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves,” by Dan Ariely, about misbehaviors in economics.
• “The Future of the Professions” by Richard Susskind about how technology will transform the work of human experts.

Advice for entrepreneurs: Dare, and don’t be afraid to fail. If you want something from someone call them. Don’t email.

What are you afraid of? Stupidity. It can sometimes be frightening.

What are you most proud of? To have build something that everyone thought that it will never work.

Favorite vacation destination: Tel Aviv. Heritage and future is so close to each other.

Favorite musician: Sting. I just like his sound.

Favorite food: Asian, Italian, French and BBQ.

Favorite quote: “Well, if it can be thought, it can be done, a problem can be overcome,”—E.A. Bucchianeri

Your mantra: If not now, then when?

 

Who would you want sitting next to you if you got stuck for 3 hours on the tarmac in a 737? Jeremy Rifkin.

 

Edited by Monica Bay, CodeX Fellow. Do you want to be featured in Startup Snapshots? Ping me at mbay@codex.stanford.edu.