LawPivot's Jay Mandal, Startup Counsel
Fourth-generation lawyer Jay Mandal quit an M&A gig at Apple to start LawPivot, a website that gives tech entrepreneurs affordable legal advice
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In Silicon Valley, there’s a vocabulary of asceticism: “ramen-profitable” and “bootstrapping” are terms to live by for young companies that need to make every dollar count. It’s hard to scrimp on legal fees, however. Incorporating a company or raising venture capital requires professional legal advice that can cost thousands of dollars.
Jay Mandal, the former lead mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer for Apple, thinks he can help. He quit his lucrative corporate gig in 2009 to found LawPivot, a Q&A website that matches cash-sensitive startups with the lawyers who might be able to help them. Companies visit the site and pose questions, such as whether they need to trademark a brand or how to minimize liability from negative user reviews.