24-Hour Startup: Build an online marketplace of legal experts

How to build an online marketplace for legal professionals

May 13, 2021

👋 I’m Zoe Chew, a product builder in tech. I’ve built & launched multiple products & apps using the rapid MVP method: sneaker app, personal FAQ, meal kit app, virtual event app, SaaS tracker, online food delivery +more

In this 24-hour startup hackathon, I break down a B2B startup idea, build the MVP, share the MVP video tutorial, and explain the product processes: ideation, validation, distribution, and monetization.

1. Startup idea 💡

LegalSpot— an online marketplace startup that connects lawyers and business clients for company-related legal consultation. Check out the live MVP website.

Industry quick bite:

Online legal services provide quick access to legal practitioners, which helps clients get legal help online without having to hire lawyers on a retainer basis.
Examples of online legal services: company formation, tax registration, legal counsel, drafting agreements, estate planning, divorce, family law, real estate, civil, etc.
One of the top players, Legal Zoom has 1001–5000 employees and $811M funded, a one-stop platform for online legal services and advisory

Next, we will define the problem, brainstorm potential solutions, and identify value creation opportunities.

Problem

Legal matters are tedious. Ignoring legal matters is a costly financial mistake.
Finding the right business lawyers often waste time, energy, and money.
For lawyers, it takes a long process to generate high-quality business leads.

Solution

Qualify business leads through 1:1 intro calls.
Receive high-quality client matches in 24 hours via a verified network.
Private community for legal practitioners to build deeper relationships, discuss legal needs, and collaborate.

Target market

Pre-company stage, early-stage, and growth-stage company founders who are looking for legal experts.
Legal practitioners who are specialized in company formation, tax registration, IP protection, drafting agreement, document review, international expansion, mergers & acquisitions, etc.

Unique selling proposition (USP)

For business users:

Vetted network of legal professionals.
Cost-effective, on-demand legal advisors.
Support your legal needs across company stages. Anytime. Anywhere.

For legal professionals:

Relevant client-matching.
Ease of getting high-quality business leads.
Scale your legal practice digitally from the comfort of your home.

2. Scope of MVP 🪞

An MVP (minimum viable product) is used to test your startup idea, value proposition, and solutions as quickly as you can without risking any budget at the early stage.

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Pick one problem, come up with one solution to solve the problem.

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Here’s how to think through the initial MVP scope:

Provide high-quality matches for business clients by introducing relevant lawyers for their needs.
Help legal practitioners find the right business leads.
Deliver the matching service between the legal practitioners and business users through 1:1 calls

Key functionalities

A landing page that explains the legal marketplace concept
A directory listing of vetted legal practitioners
Search and filter option in the directory listing
Expand profile detail of each legal practitioner
Book a call (initiated by business clients)
Schedule a 1:1 intro call (manually qualify business users for quality matching)

3. MVP Stack 🔨

You can use these tools to quickly build the legal advisors marketplace — without coding or technical knowledge.

Airtable

Airtable is a spreadsheet-database hybrid, with the features of a database but applied to a spreadsheet.

Pory

No-code builder that can generate web app features by integrating with Airtable.

Calendly

Create online appointments to manually onboard potential users, deliver the matching service, go deeper to understand their needs, and improve the MVP.

Mailchimp

Create an email list in Mailchimp and integrate the email signup form on the landing page.

Mockuper

Generate laptop, tablet, desktop, and mobile phone mockups to showcase your platform or app images.

4. Build the MVP features 🚀

This MVP has two parts:

the startup landing page
the web app that contains the profile directory of vetted legal practitioners.

You can also watch the full MVP video here 👈

(1) Startup landing page

Explain the startup idea, value proposition, how it works, why your service is unique, who has the problem, and who you are building for.

(2) Curated legal advisors directory

Showcase a list of curated legal professionals and allow users to proceed with their booking. Manually arrange the matching or booking process through a 1:1 intro.

(3) Category search and filter

Filter the profile directory based on the legal services category. For example, Intellectual Property, Venture Financing, Company Entity, Patent, International Expansion, etc.

(4) Lawyers’ profile detail

Users can click on each lawyer’s profile and expand for more details.

(5) Book a call

Users can select an advisor and book a call session. Users are required to schedule an intro call and we can use this opportunity to understand their company needs and make a 1:1 intro.