Doxly, a new legal technology software-as-a-service platform for transaction attorneys, is going public with its story today and announcing its private beta with paying customers Ice Miller LLP (a leading U.S.-based law firm) and True Capital Management, LLC (a wealth management firm for high net worth individuals). Doxly also has letters of intent from at least two more paying customers that are expected to join the pilot.

The cloud-based platform brings improved accuracy, speed and transparency to an antiquated offline legal transaction process dotted with printed checklists, call logs and emails. Doxly offers law firms a better way to manage the diligence, deal closing and signature process, and provides access to previously unavailable or difficult to obtain data intelligence.

Founded by two Ice Miller attorneys Haley Altman and Elizabeth Brier, Doxly is the fourth company to launch from High Alpha venture studio since its founding in June 2015. Brier retained her position with Ice Miller and Altman left to become CEO of Doxly. The startup currently employs five people, including a TechPoint IndyxTech Fellow, with immediate plans to hire at least five more people in software development, customer success and marketing.

Altman said she and Brier came up with the idea after a long night working on an equity deal surrounded by close to 60 folders, each filled with different documents that required signatures from multiple people — and they were missing one single signature.

Haley Altman

Haley AltmanCEO and Co-founder

“In those moments — missing that one signature could delay or kill the deal — you can start to wonder whether or not you’re going to have a career tomorrow if you can’t get it done,” Altman said. “Everything worked out fine for us that night, but we asked ourselves: ‘Is this really how we do things?’”

Because of her more than a decade of experience completing venture capital financings and mergers and acquisitions on behalf of clients in Silicon Valley and Indianapolis, Altman understood both the intricacies of the legal workflow and the need for access to its data, which is often buried in printed documents or stored in unsecure email attachments.

“We used checklists, opposing counsel used checklists, attorneys all over the country used the same kinds of checklists for transactions and we had this epiphany. What if we used technology to automate a standard worklflow for transaction attorneys that would also provide easy access to the data intelligence?  We did a lot of research and were surprised to see that there really wasn’t a technology solution that helped guide you through the transaction.”

Altman explained that transactions occur daily from commercial real estate leases and bank loans to a tech company getting a new round of funding or a big sale like the Salesforce acquisition of ExactTarget. A $250,000 seed funding round might seem small compared to a $2.5 billion acquisition, but that seed round is someone’s payroll and the deal has to happen on time or people aren’t going to get paid. Doxly provides the tools to help people get from the diligence part of the transaction all the way to the execution in an effective, efficient way.

Dashboard Screen

Closing-and-Diligence-screens
Screen shots from the Doxly platform. Click on the images above for larger views.

Doxly’s features include:

  • Automated workflows for diligence and closing checklists
  • Transaction-specific analytics and reports
  • Document collaboration for legal teams and clients
  • “Digital Closing Books” created from transaction-related information archives.

Through integrations with industry leading technologies Box and DocuSign and built on Amazon Web Services, Doxly adheres to the highest industry standards for security and document management and automates electronic signature collection. The software-as-a-service platform is sold on an annual subscription basis.

Doxly is targeting law firms of all sizes that handle a fairly high number of transactions and understand that clients are demanding more value from their law firm than technical legal skills.

“The customer experience is becoming increasingly important in the legal world and clients are looking to see value-driven initiatives in their preferred law firms,” Altman said. “Tech is a little bit absent from the legal profession and clients don’t really understand why their law firms are still sending so much paper through the mail when just about everything else they do is digital. With Doxly, we’re changing that and law firms are going to see increased deals and revenue in addition to all the other benefits of our platform.”

Visit High Alpha to read the original press release and go to Doxly.com for more information about the platform.