How This 25-Year-Old Built A $675M Legal AI Startup (With No Legal Experience)

In this episode of Founder Firesides, YC General Partner Gustaf Alströmer is joined by Max Junestrand, co-founder and CEO of Legora, one of the fastest-growing legal AI startups in the world.

In just 13 months, Max and his team scaled from 10 to 100 people, raised $80M, and cracked the challenge of selling to one of the most skeptical industries. Today, Legora’s AI workspace is used by tens of thousands of lawyers, including top law firms like Goodwin and Cleary Gottlieb.

Max shares insights on building a successful vertical AI company, selling to conservative markets, and sheds light on what the future of legal tech looks like.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Chapters:
00:45 – Legora's Origin Story
01:00 – Building an AI Workspace for Lawyers
02:20 – The GPT Unlock
04:10 – The “Aha Moment” with Law Firms
06:15 – Raising $80M and Scaling Fast
06:30 – How Legora Works
09:40 – How It Transforms Legal Work
11:40 – Selling To AI Skeptics
14:40 – Creative Use Cases: From Court Battles to NDAs
17:30 – Starting Without Industry Expertise
18:40 – Interviewing 100 Lawyers
20:30 – Competing with Legacy Legal Tech Giants
23:50 – Tech Stack and Model Strategy
25:00 – Who Actually Buys AI inside a Law Firm?
27:00 – Cracking Sales in Conservative Industries
28:00 – Max’s Background: From eSports to Startups
30:50 – Hypergrowth: 10 → 100 People in 13 Months
34:00 – Why Hiring Ex-Founders Works
36:45 – The Future Job of a Lawyer
38:35 – What PMF Felt Like
39:45 – Why They Stayed in Stockholm (Not SF)
41:00 – Becoming the Category Leader in Legal AI
42:00 – Advice for Founders Building Vertical AI Companies
43:20 – What It’s Like to Work at Legora