Bending Rules | Michael Ulin, Co-Founder of Paxton AI, a legal technology company that recently closed a $22 million Series A, shares his journey into entrepreneurship and how it led him to Paxton AI
Description
Intro: Chris Capdevila and I were joined today by Michael Ulin, most recently a Co-founder of Paxton.AI, a legal technology firm designed to transform the legal landscape with state-of-the-art generative AI tools that expedite and simplify legal research, contract drafting, and review. Paxton AI just closed a 22M Series A financing lead by Unusual Ventures.
After graduating from Emory University, Michael embarked on a journey that would take him far beyond the confines of his small-town upbringing. His career began at McKinsey & Company, where he met his future co-founder, Tanguy Chau. This pivotal connection would later lead to the creation of his company, Paxton AI.
Michael’s venture into the world of AI began with his roleat RPX, a legal tech company that sparked his interest in AI and set the stage for his future endeavors. After RPX, Michael co-founded Zesty AI with several former McKinsey colleagues. At Zesty, he served as the head of AI, applyingadvanced AI models to the property insurance industry. “That was my first startup from inception to the growth stage, and I learned a lot along the way and made a lot of mistakes. It set me up well for what we’re doing today at Paxton AI.”
Michael’s journey has not been without its personalstruggles. Like many McKinsey alumni, he considers himself an “insecure overachiever,” a mindset that drove him to excel but also left him vulnerable during tough times. “At Zesty, my identity was tied up in the company’s success, and when we struggled financially, I felt like I had failed.” However, as with most successful entrepreneurs, Michael recognized that failure is just another learning opportunity.
When the opportunity to partner with Tanguy Chau andco-found Paxton AI arose, he seized it with enthusiasm. “The early stages of company building were the most exciting to me at Zesty. When generative AI came to the fore, and Tanguy and I saw the potential, we jumped at the chance tobuild something new,” he says. Together, they created Paxton AI and the industry is taking notice!
Onward,
Pete
2:47 -- Introduction to entrepreneurship.
6:58 -- Co-founding Paxton AI and its mission
12:15 -- Getting technical, navigating the speed of innovation within AI frameworks
23:37 -- LLM vs SLMs, what's the difference? Why domain expertise is the winning ingredient
30:54 -- The linear success path straight up to the right is rarely the case, how failures shaped his path to success
35:21 -- What's is take to get VC funding (now having been apart of several founding teams that have raised VC)
50:53 -- Cultivating culture with a remote workforce and parting thoughts
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