From Dorm To Destiny- The Lawctopus Story.

 

Read Tanuj Kalia's journey from winning Legally India's "Best Blogger" competition with the LegalPoet, to starting Lawctopus and guiding it to become India's most popular website for law students, as we talk about his and Lawctopus's past, present and the future.





Sourya (S): How did the idea initially come up? When was it(year)? How many people were initially involved?

Tanuj (T): Scene 1:
From my 2nd year in law school, I was freelancing for LegallyIndia.com, which is now India’s leading online portal for the legal community.
Legally India also launched a blogging competition around then, where my blogavatar LegalPoet won the ‘Best Blogger’ award of Rs. 35,000! That felt rich.
Being a law student, I was slightly disappointed that Legally India did not publish more content related to law schools or for law students. That irritated me.
Scene 2:
Then in 3rd year Chicken Pox struck me. It was ugly, put me in bed for long with nothing to do. An idle mind is a devil’s workshop!
I had an, "Aha.!" moment! A website for law students!
I remembered how LST’s (a pre-law coaching company) lawstudent.in used to be a great resource. (It’s not working for now I think).
I also knew how an Orkut community called ‘legal internships’ contained useful insights on legal internships: how to apply, what sort of work one can expect, stipend etc.
Scene 3:
The idea took concrete shape during the bed-rest.

I jotted down ideas on the back of a book (Rabindranath Tagore’s biography published by NBT): what all will the website contain, team etc.
When I came back to college, I (very excitedly) pitched this idea to my friends. Some were interested, some were not. And we launched from, as the fashion goes, NUJS’ dorm room.

(S): Were people around initially convinced about the idea?

(T): No. Some were.
But I did send a 20 page document to the people who are now the co-founders.   

(S): How was the initial capital raised? What were the other financial difficulties?

(T): Finances have never been a problem. Starting a website doesn't require any money really.

(S): What were the primary problems faced while starting?

(T): None of us can be called a 'tech guy', so we did face a problem on that front (includes design).

(S): How were outsiders approached/ advertisement problems?

(T): We didn't start with the idea of making money so we never thought of not getting advertisers as a problem.
The best way to approach a potential advertiser is to do it via a contact who might know that advertiser. For example, I get in touch with people who've interned at a particular organisation to connect me with the boss.

Q) Current Problems?

(T): Current problem: whether to keep Lawctopus as a pure content website or whether to introduce other features (career counselling wing, for example).
Also, on a personal note, whether to go into a completely entrepreneurial terrain or not.

Q) Which direction do you see it heading now/future plans?

(T): Future plan is simple: more content, better content, diverse content. That seems simple and benevolent.
However, in case we decide to move to other things, we'll be heading towards more kickass things.

Q) Do you see other start-ups as your followers or competition?

(T): Project Cloud is one venture which I am fond of. I see them as a competitor. Others (and one doesn't need to look far) are copytitors.

Q) Any tips for future start-ups?

(T): Tips:

1. If you have an idea; do some basic research and then start (START). Start it off as an experiment.
2. Read on the subject: Seth Godin, for example.
3. Persistence pays. You don't launch a popular website, you build one.
4. Have fun along the way. Don't be too serious about the money, the idea or the future. Otherwise, you'll die very young.

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iPleaders- A Dream To Make Access To Justice Cheaper.

iPleaders consists of a team of lawyers hell-bent on figuring out ways to make law more accessible. While the lack of access to affordable and timely legal support cuts across all sectors, classes and people in India, where it is missed most, surprisingly, are business situations. The concept of business lawyers is still nascent in this country, and while there are world class law firms catering to top-of-the-market clients like investment banks, PE or VC funds, financial powerhouses and multi-national corporations – there are very few, if at all workable, options for the common businessman, the SME manager or the startup founder. iPleaders began in 2010 to address this market with the help of technology and education. The following is an interview with one of the founders of iPleaders, Mr. Ramanuj Mukherjee.


Q) How did the idea initially come up? When was it(year)? How many people were initially involved?

The idea certainly did not come up at once. We were doing various things – we wanted to make a difference through our work, and we wanted to do practical things while we were in college. We felt that learning things by reading books and sitting in classroom is not enough. We started helping entrepreneurs with legal work when we were in college – sometimes even for free. They were also eager to get some good legal help – and they often found dealing with lawyers very difficult otherwise.
There was a point of time when I was wondering how we can get more legal work – because sometimes people would say that we are too young and would not take us seriously. I thought of two ways to build credibility without having to wait to grow old – one was to write a book, and the other was to teach law to the entrepreneurs. As I kept helping them with various work, I would get the strong feeling that they could learn some law and apply those in their business on a regular basis. This was vindicated when I met some veteran businessmen who knew law in and out anyway. They did not have systematic understanding, but they would know the rules that apply to the industry in which they work very well.
Over time, we decided to start a course to teach law to businessmen, entrepreneurs and innovators. We felt that access to good and affordable legal resources is a major barrier in India when it comes to entrepreneurship. Providing legal service was possible – but that would not scale beyond a point and would not change the situation much. Teaching law on the other hand, although a very new proposition – had the promise of having a bigger reach. So we decided to start a legal education company. This was formally done in 2012 though we started the groundwork much earlier.
It soon became very obvious that legal education is not only absent for businessmen willing to learn it systematically, but not even to law students who are dedicating half a decade of their life to the law schools and colleges. Hence, we extended our first practical business law course to entrepreneurs as well as law students and lawyers.


Q) Were people around initially convinced about the idea?

To be honest, most people around us thought we are crazy. Even if they appreciated the spirit of entrepreneurship, they didn't believe that we could make any money by teaching law. My father still insists that we should start doing legal work rather than this education nonsense :)
When they would hear about iPleaders, many people thought that we are planning to run a non-profit business. Some just told us that the idea is not going to work, because serious businessmen would not want to learn law when they can just hire lawyers. We heard many objections, but we had solid faith in our idea and kept working on it.
Most importantly, however, we are most grateful to the teachers in NUJS such as Vice Chancellor M. P. Singh and Prof. Shamnad Basheer who were convinced about the course. They were wonderfully encouraging, and helped us to build the course. Now we can proudly say that NUJS runs its most popular and most profitable distance course with iPleaders despite having several such other business law courses.


Q) How was the initial capital raised? What were the other financial difficulties?

There was no initial capital. We needed money to survive – and we had some minimal savings from our previous job at Trilegal. We worked from home and did some consulting work or freelance writing to pay the bills when absolutely necessary. Since then the internally generated revenue has helped us to finance our expansionary activity. We may raise some capital by the end of year as our business model becomes more mature.


Q) What were the primary problems faced while starting?

We did not face any major problems. The beginning phase was very long – and the biggest danger was perhaps that the core team will fall apart and choose different careers. We always had other tempting options. Quitting a well paying job is also a major decision to make.


Q) How were outsiders approached/ advertisement problems?

We used social media very effectively. We also used our networks in the law schools and entrepreneurship circle to spread the news.

Q) Current Problems?

The biggest problem is to find the right people to work with us. The best people in law schools want to work in a law firm. Their idea of an alternative career is litigation. It is very difficult to find quality people who are interested to work in a startup like ours. Also hiring freshers is a major challenge because they are often not trained professionals and lack the work ethics and maturity needed to work at a startup. While those who are burnt out by working in a law firm for a while make better hires, they are at the moment too expensive for us to hire. Finding the right people to hire has been our biggest challenge.


Q) Which direction do you see it heading now/future plans?

We want to build innovative and useful courses around law and career development. We are looking at a rapid growth over the next three years.


Q) Any tips for future start-ups?

Start small – and learn the business first. Learn the game. Build the right skills over years before jumping into the business – or just jump in and learn. Do not sit on the fences. Get started. Expose yourself to real work. Get your hands dirty, burn your fingers, and always learn.

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MATS Law School Seminar.

For Further Details Click Here 

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SKILL VS CHANCE.

               Even though it is associated with one of the crudest form of gambling, Poker is anything but that. Long back in the case of Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. John Wheeler, a lawyer was able to satisfy a 7 member jury about this by having them play against 7 mathematics professors in the open court hall. The result was that the jury members lost every single time, thus proving that card games like Poker etc is not a game of chance, but a game of skill and bringing about the difference between the two previously confused types.

                 India is a powerhouse of software development. India has a strong online games industry, which includes games developed for computers, tablets, smartphones of all colours and shapes. Some of these are in the nature of gambling or betting games. Many of the Indian online gaming companies operate in the international market. No Indian law prevents them from operating or producing online games which fall in the category of betting or gambling outside of India. The gaming industry catering to international markets from India can be strengthened if minimum safety and integrity standards are set out for manufacturing and supply of gambling software by Indian companies.

               In such cases it should be noted that in May of 2011, the Federal Government of India made it illegal for online gambling in India. The source of this law is the new Federal Internet Technology rules which in short say that anything considered offensive, illegal or taboo was to be against the law.

                  In short for the determination of whether an online game is gambling or not a Test has to be followed. The most reasonable test is to find this out is to find out the amount of “chance” or element of luck present in the game. Any game that depends on the skill of the player to determine the winner cannot be called as gambling and hence cannot be punishable under Indian Laws. Till date there is no case or previous precedent to guide the courts, but legal prudence points towards the fact that as long as there is a clear indication as to what the game is achieving per se or even in its pith and substance is not illegal or violative of the IT Act then the game does not violate any laws.

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