INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
tightens its belt and businesses chase margins instead of growth via unsustainable economics
hiring and collaborating with lawyers
Atrium plans to ramp up its startup advising services
headcount of 150 as of June.The change could make Atrium more efficient by keeping fewer expensive lawyers on staff
However, it could weaken its $500 per month Atrium membership that included some services from its in-house lawyers that might be more
complicated for clients to get through its professional network
Atrium will also now have to prove the its client-lawyer collaboration software can survive in the market with firms paying for it rather
high-quality services to our clients
human lawyers to provide quicker and cheaper legal services
Its technology can help automatically generate fundraising contracts, hiring offers and cap tables for startups while using machine learning
to recommend procedures and clauses based on anonymized data from its clients
working off the latest versions without digging through email.The $500 per month Atrium membership offered this technology plus limited
access to an in-house startup lawyer for consultation, plus access to guide books and events
Clients could pay extra if they needed special help such as with finalizing an acquisition deal, or access to its Fundraising Concierge
service for aid with developing a pitch and lining up investor meetings.Kan tells me Atrium still has some in-house lawyers on staff, which
will help it honor all its existing membership contracts and power its new emphasis on advising services
was that Atrium has done a really good job of building a brand with startups
reported Saturday that Atrium was laying off in-house lawyers
Atrium clients on working with them when they leave
have as many lawyers in-house
But Kan believes third-party lawyers might be more clear and direct about what they need from legal technology
correct course before getting any bigger, given the fundraising problems hitting late-stage startups with poor economics in the wake of the
Atrium had raised a $10.5 million Series A in 2017 led by General Catalyst alongside Kleiner, Founders Fund, Initialized and Kindred
Then in September 2018, it scored a huge $65 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz.Raising even bigger rounds might have been
impossible if Atrium was offering consultations with lawyers at far below market rate
Now it might be in a better position to attract funding
But the question is whether clients will stick with Atrium if they get less access to a lawyer for the same price, and whether the
collaboration platform is useful enough for outside law firms to pay for.Kan had gone through tough pivots in the past
He had strapped a camera to his head to create content for his live-streaming startup Justin.tv, but wisely recentered on the 3% of users
letting people watch them play video games
Justin.tv became Twitch and eventually sold to Amazon for $970 million
His on-demand personal assistant startup Exec had to switch to just cleaning in 2013 before shutting down due to rotten economics.Rather
than deny the inevitable and wait until the last minute, with Atrium Kan tried to make the hard decision early.
