Ironclad's story is one of great patience, careful preparation, and steadfast belief in the transformative power of #artificialintelligence. For nearly a decade, the team has been preparing for the AI moment we are now in. Join us as Cai GoGwilt, Co-Founder and Chief Architect of Ironclad, shares the challenges and triumphs of their journey since founding the company in 2014. The story inspires founders to ask themselves: are there things you want to do in the future that you can prepare for today?

Cai never expected to work in the legal industry. At Palantir, he was a software developer in military intelligence and AI. He noticed many industries were underserved by modern software and, inspired by friends who were lawyers, decided to start building tech that would improve the practice of law. Around the same time, Jason Boehmig, who is now Cai’s Co-Founder and Ironclad’s CEO, was a corporate attorney at Fenwick & West. Jason was seeking tech solutions to break through legal bottlenecks. In 2014, they teamed up to build Ironclad to do precisely that. For the first few years, they focused solely on collaboration tools. But in the background, they were always working on AI. Years later, when @OpenAI's #GPT3 launched, it changed everything.

“When I first saw what AI is now capable of, my first thought was, ‘It's time.’.’” – Cai GoGwilt

They have been building, learning, and experimenting with AI for nearly a decade. Despite meticulous preparation, the rapid pace of progress over the past year was not without challenges. In the upcoming episode, Cai and Accel's Steve Loughlin will share how their team sustained their stamina for AI and turned roadblocks into critical ingredients for success.

#vc #venturecapital #founder #entrepreneurs #tech #CEO #ironcladapp #artificialintelligence #palantirtech #OpenAI #GPT3 #AccelVC

Access the episode on Spotlight On: https://www.accel.com/spotlighton/iro...

Season 1:
Season 1 focuses on AI. In this season, we’re bringing together a range of company leaders across different industries and stages to discuss how they’re navigating the current AI revolution. Learn from 12 leaders applying AI in all parts of the ecosystem. They have enabled new industries and profoundly influenced productivity, creativity, and the global economy. Several founders of AI-native companies we spoke to, such as  @AssemblyAI ,  @ironcladapp ,  @Scale_AI , and  @synthesia-io  embarked on their AI journey years before the current cycle. They were the crazy ones, the early visionaries, the risk-takers, who patiently built early AI products.

Spotlight On:
Spotlight On examines the technology shaping our world. Highlighting a new topic each season, company builders at all stages of company growth will share their learnings, challenges, and breakthroughs.

Accel:
Accel is a global venture capital firm that is the first partner to exceptional teams everywhere, from inception through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Bumble, CrowdStrike, Fiverr, Flipkart, Freshworks, Qualtrics, Scale, Segment, Slack, Spotify, Squarespace, Tenable, and UiPath are among the companies Accel has backed over the past 40+ years. We help ambitious entrepreneurs build iconic global businesses.

Host: Steve Loughlin, Partner at Accel
Guest: Cai GoGwilt, Co-Founder and Chief Architect of Ironclad

Conversation Highlights:
00:00 - Cai’s early interest in legal tech and the formation of Ironclad’s founding team
7:00 - Balancing early product development with patience for the AI ecosystem to develop
11:00 - Predictions for the dramatic impact AI will have on the legal practice
14:00- Ironclad’s attempts at building an AI agent – and their big open-source breakthrough
18:00 - What startup founders can learn from Ironclad’s quick response to GPT
23:00 - Implications of AI on the legal workforce; massive efficiency gains
27:00 - Advice for avoiding common mistakes startups make when a new disruptive technology emerges

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Ironclad’s Cai GoGwilt | A Decade Awaiting AI's Transformation | Spotlight On: AI | S1E8 | AccelVC
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