Naré Vardanyan is the co-founder and CEO of Ntropy, building the vertical AI company for finance. Ntropy is based in NYC with offices in London and Lisbon. It has raised over $14 million in venture funding and has over 20 employees across the United States and Europe. Naré was born and raised in Armenia. She's an alumnus of Yerevan State University Department of International Relations, as well as University College London, where she studied politics and security. She participated in the UNDP Young Professionals Program in NYC. She has also been the co-founder at Mindbin, a mental health startup focused on predictive analytics for bipolar disorder, which later exited to Mercer Group. She then joined the investment team at the Mayor of London's fund, LCIF, focusing on artificial intelligence. She has also invested in over 35 early-stage applied AI companies with AI Seed in London. In this episode, we discuss: * How Ntropy is unlocking financial data for decision-making, * How Ntropy balanced using legal templates and working with lawyers to get legal done, * Why founders are frustrated by lawyers who overcomplicate things, * What legaltech startups can learn from fintech startups, * Why constantly having to bring your lawyer up to speed is inefficient – and what the alternative is, * Human threat vs. AI threat, and how uneven distribution of AI potential is dangerous. 0:00 Intro 1:44 What is Ntropy? 3:34 Incorporating on Stripe Atlas 8:43 Hiring counsel for Seed round 11:07 Navigating legal yourself 14:21 Lawyers who overcomplicate 18:40 Fintech lessons for legaltech 26:02 Bringing lawyers up-to-speed 29:11 Avoiding hierarchy in AI ** Ntropy: https://www.ntropy.com/ Ntropy is building language models to understand financial data at scale. Any format, any data source, any geography. Corpora: https://corpora.us/ Corpora is an all-in-one legal platform for startups. It’s free to sign up, get started today.

Eduard Grigoryan is a senior associate at Latham & Watkins practicing out of New York and Los Angeles. He is a member of the Emerging Companies Practice and represents emerging and established technology companies as well as venture capital and growth investors that invest in technology companies. Eduard has represented technology companies and venture funds in financing transactions with a combined deal value of over $1B dollars, as well as sellers and acquirers in M&A transactions with a combined deal value of over $30B. Eduard is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School. In his free time, he lecturers and writes on issues of economic development and corporate law in emerging markets. In this episode, we discuss: * When founders should hire a lawyer, * What a founder should look for in a lawyer, * Things founders do that drive lawyers nuts, * Fundraising and keeping your house in order, * DIY vs. hiring a lawyer, * How to make law more accessible for founders, * Whether AI will replace lawyers. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:52 Working with a lawyer 4:48 What to look for in a lawyer 9:33 Pet peeves for lawyers 16:10 Fundraising best practices 18:47 Strategic legal guidance 23:14 Improving access to law 27:54 AI and Law ** Corpora is your startup’s legal dashboard that helps founders – and their attorneys – get legal done, from formation to fundraising. It’s free to sign up, get started today. Corpora: https://corpora.us

Erin Beck is Wana’s mompreneur Founder and CEO. Before Wana, she was a SpaceX Dragon Mission Director, designing and operating spacecraft bound for the International Space Station. Before that, an around-the-world backpacker, rescue scuba instructor, and award-winning theatre director. She believes skills are cumulative and transferable across disciplines. She believes being a parent tops them all. And she believes it is absolutely okay to have everything – even free babysitting. In this episode, we discuss: * How founders figure out legal before hiring a lawyer, * How long a founder can go without hiring a lawyer, * Things lawyers do that drive founders nuts, * What a founder should look for in a lawyer, * How open founders should be toward legaltech, * Whether AI will – or should – replace lawyers. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:46 Navigating legal 6:47 When to hire counsel 11:27 Legal pet peeves 16:39 Lawyer as Partner 20:10 LegalTech for Founders 25:09 Counsel Check-Ins 27:00 AI and Law ** Corpora is an AI-powered legal dashboard for early-stage startups to get legal done. Our first product, the Smart Legal Drive, helps startups keep their documents organized, accurate, and complete while also giving a heads-up on red flags. Wana: https://www.mykomae.com Corpora: https://corpora.us

Nareg Essaghoolian is the co-founding attorney of Decrypted Law, LLP. Throughout his career he has represented startups from incorporation to exit that have raised billions of dollars in venture capital. He started Decrypted Law to disrupt the industry using transparent pricing models and innovative technology. In this episode, we discuss: * Lawyers doing mundane work that should be automated * Legal tech that Decrypted Law is experimenting with * The importance of legal audits * Legal debt * Will AI replace lawyers? * Should AI replace lawyers? * Alternative fee structures * Working with the right startup attorney Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:31 Technology and Law 3:21 Capabilities and limits of AI 5:07 LegalTech tools 7:30 Legal audits 8:28 Legal debt 10:03 Level of attorney involvement 12:06 Will AI replace lawyers? 13:30 Emotion in law 18:05 Should AI replace lawyers? 21:45 NewLaw mindset 24:00 Choosing startup counsel ** Corpora is an AI-powered legal dashboard for early-stage startups to get legal done. Our first product, the Smart Legal Drive, helps startups keep their documents organized, accurate, and complete while also giving a heads-up on red flags. Decrypted Law: http://decryptedlaw.com/ Nareg Essaghoolian's profile: https://corpora.us/nareg-essaghoolian/ Corpora: https://corpora.us

Welcome to the Corpora Podcast, where we meet with leading professionals and thinkers to talk startup law, technology, and the future of legal. In our first episode, I sit down with Hayk Mamajanyan, Partner at Rimôn Law, to talk about the science of transactional law, what makes a transactional lawyer, and how AI is changing the practice of law. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:48 What is transactional law? 4:17 Science of transactional law 5:56 Negotiating tips 8:19 Transactional vs litigation attorneys 11:09 Art of transactional law 15:00 Will AI replace lawyers? 18:48 Future of corporate legal ** Hayk Mamajanyan is a corporate, venture capital, and mergers & acquisitions partner at Rimôn Law Los Angeles office. He focuses on strategic and transactional matters acting both as a legal advisor and a strategic partner for his clients. Hayk represents venture capital funds, founders, and enterprises, principally in technology and other related industries. Hayk advises investors, early and late-stage companies in various business matters as their external general counsel. ** Corpora is a legal dashboard for early-stage startups to get legal done from formation to Series B. Our first product, the Smart Legal Drive, is available for private beta.