Ellie Horvath
Tell us about yourself?
I’m the founder and CEO of Legislate a legal tech company which allows businesses to create lawyer-appproved contracts on no legal budget. I have a background in Engineering and Business development.
What lessons has being an entrepreneur taught you?
Being an entrepreneur is hard but extremely rewarding. Every day is different and the challenges are constantly evolving which means you’re constantly on your toes and learning.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
If I could go back in time, I’d skip everything which didn’t work out or go to plan. However, we wouldn’t know why what’s working is working so I don’t think it’s worth changing the past.
When things don’t work it’s important to diagnose the issues and make amendments as quickly as possible.
A lot of entrepreneurs find it difficult to balance their work and personal lives. How have you found that?
I think the personal life will always be sacrificed to a certain extent by founders but it doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t balance between work and personal. Routines are a great way to ensure there’s no interference from one into the other.
Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?
Although I’m not a lawyer, I spent a lot of time processing contract when I was doing business development in my previous role.
I was frustrated by how long it would take simple amendments to be approved by legal teams and the delays would sometimes cause us to loose opportunities.
I started Legislate to empower business users like myself to create contracts in a robust way without needing to get legal involved at every single step.
What do you think is your magic sauce? What sets you apart from the competitors?
We offer a complete and end-to-end solution which is robust enough for lawyers yet easy enough to use for business users.
We also have a more granular access to the data in contracts which allows businesses to answer deeper questions about their contracts.
How have you found sales so far? Do you have any lessons you could pass on to other founders in the same market as you just starting out?
Our key channel has been content marketing and SEO. Demonstrating expertise with content is a great way to attract leads and convert them into customers.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced so far in your business, and how did you overcome it?
Finding customers is always a challenge and we are overcoming it through our content marketing and outbound efforts.
What do you find are the advantages of operating your business in London?
London has a collaborative tech ecosystem which can be a great source of beta users and early adopters.
Are there any issues with having a London based business? Have you experienced these?
We haven’t experienced any issues yet.
How has the higher than UK average cost of living impacted your ability to work and live in London and how has this also impacted your ability as an employer?
London can be quite cost-effective depending on the location and the roles you are hiring for.
If you had to relocate your business to another city in the UK, which one would it be and why?
We would relocate to Oxford because that’s where we were originally based!
How has BREXIT impacted your business (if at all)?
We’re a SaaS company so BREXIT hasn’t affected our sales but has definitely affected our ability to hire European talent.
What is your vision for your company in the next 5 years?
Our goal is to connect the data in contracts with the systems they depend on so that business workflows can be streamlined beyond contracts and business insights can be enriched with contract data.
And finally, if people want to get involved and learn more about your business, how should they do that?
The best way to get involved with us is to visit our website https://www.legislate.tech or connect with us on socials.
