Builders

Builders

By N47BusinessEntrepreneurshipInvesting
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Builders episodes

  • Leaving Venture Capital to Build Legal AI

    In this episode of Builders, Matthew sits down with Paul Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Patlytics, the AI-powered platform that supports the full patent lifecycle. Paul spent years as a venture capitalist before jumping to the other side of the table, and in under two and a half years, he's taken Patlytics from an idea to a company trusted by more than 40% of AmLaw 100 firms.

    This episode digs into what it actually took to earn that trust: a "business first, fundraising follows" philosophy, a decade-old friendship with his co-founder that became the company's operating glue, and a hard line on accuracy in a profession where attorneys don't get a second shot.

    In this episode, Matthew and Paul discuss:

    • Why Paul walked away from venture capital to found Patlytics, and how founder stress differs from investor stress

    • How to build a healthy and long-lasting co-founder relationship

    • Patlytics' contrarian fundraising philosophy that led to a Seed, Series A, and Series B in under two and a half years

    • How Patlytics builds trust with lawyers who have almost zero tolerance for AI hallucinations

    • Selling to two very different buyers, law firms and in-house counsel, under one platform

    • The love-hate relationship every vertical AI company has with frontier labs as LLMs keep improving

    • The most common mistakes founders make when applying general AI to high-stakes, specialized domains

    • What law firms will look like in five years, and the parts of the job that will always need a human

      • REFERENCED:

      • Patlytics

      • Tribe Capital

      • Global Founders Capital

      • Harvey

      • Latham & Watkins

      • FedRAMP


        • LINKS:

        • Paul's LinkedIn

        • Matthew's LinkedIn

        • N47 Website

          • ------

          Timestamps:

          01:03 - Why abandon VC

          03:23 - Co-founder relationship

          05:57 - Where did the idea for Patlytics come from

          09:07 - VC misconceptions about founders

          13:00 - How did you win over the trust of attorneys

          17:17 - How are you serving two different buyers

          20:42 - How the Patlytics product is built

          22:07 - Security level

          23:40 - Warning for law firms

          25:52 - Rapid fire questions



          29 min
        • Don't Waste Time Thinking About Your Competitors

          Steffen Wulff Petersen and Ben Dixon are Co-Founders of Sona, the AI-native workforce management platform for frontline enterprises, along with their third Co-Founder, Oli Johnson. Before Sona, the three of them founded Catapult, a gig-economy marketplace for shift-based work in retail and hospitality. 

          This episode digs into how Steffen and Ben created an operating system for the world's frontline workforce, why they've built Sona to work across verticals and geographies from day one, and how a decade of shared operational scar tissue shapes the way they run the company today. They also share Sona's recent $45 million raise, and accelerated push into the US market, and share why the frontier labs are unlikely to come after their category directly.

          In this episode, Matthew, Steffen, and Ben discuss:

          • Share the behind-the-scenes of a co-founder relationship that’s lasted over a decade and across two companies. Highlighting how to delegate workload, building out priorities, the impacts of international expansion, and even the importance of group vacations with their families.

          • How to build products for the physical economy (and how that differs from “traditional” B2B product building and sales).

          • Taking on legacy systems and building a moat to stay ahead of frontier labs.

          • Why founders should build across verticals instead of deep into only one. 


            • References:

            • Sona

            • Lazada

            • Alibaba

            • Slack

            • Palantir

            • Claude

            • Anthropic

            • Paul Graham


              • Links:

              • Steffen's LinkedIn

              • Ben’s LinkedIn

              • Matthew’s LinkedIn

              • N47 Website


                • 41 min
              • Which Pain Points Should Founders Solve?

                Episode 1: Jahan Khanna is the Co-Founder and CEO of XBuild, the first AI platform built for construction, helping contractors streamline their estimating process and win more jobs. Jahan is a serial entrepreneur, with XBuild being the third company he’s founded.  First, he built Shepherd Intelligence Systems, then he co-founded Sidecar, one of the original rideshare pioneers, which General Motors acquired in 2016. Prior to starting XBuild, he led product at Uber for nearly 4 years.

                This episode digs into Jahan’s experience building an AI product for an industry that runs on clipboards, when he knew it was time to leave Uber and build something new, and how to find and address your customers’ existential needs. 

                In this episode, Matthew and Jahan discuss:

                • Patience as a product strategy
                • How to build in a “post-disruption” world
                • Advice to technical founders delegating engineering tasks
                • How to find the wedge in a customer base that doesn't think they need AI
                • Building AI-native and high-impact engineering teams

                  • Referenced Links:

                  • XBuild
                  • General Motors
                  • Uber
                  • Claude Code
                  • Anthropic
                  • WiMAX

                    • Links:

                    • Jahan’s LinkedIn
                    • Matthew’s LinkedIn
                    • N47 Website
                      • 37 min

                    About Builders

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                    Every technological shift creates new opportunities, challenges old assumptions, and redefines what’s possible. Builders features conversations with founders, operators, and visionaries who are…