Inside Harvey: How a first-year legal associate built one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups

Legal AI mightiness not dependable similar the sexiest class successful Silicon Valley, yet Harvey‘s CEO Winston Weinberg has captured the attraction of virtually each top-tier capitalist successful the Valley. The company’s backers work similar a who’s who of task capital: the OpenAI Startup Fund (its archetypal organization investor), Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Elad Gil, Google Ventures, Coatue, and most recently, Andreessen Horowitz.

The San Francisco-based company’s valuation has skyrocketed from $3 cardinal successful February 2025 to $5 cardinal successful June to, successful precocious October, $8 cardinal — a emergence that reflects some the bonkers numbers beings assigned to AI companies by their backstage investors and Harvey’s quality to triumph implicit large instrumentality firms and firm ineligible departments. In fact, the startup present claims 235 clients crossed 63 countries, including a bulk of the apical 10 U.S. instrumentality firms; it besides says it surpassed $100 cardinal successful yearly recurring gross arsenic of August.

We talked with Weinberg for this week’s StrictlyVC Download podcast to inquire astir his chaotic thrust truthful far. During that chat, helium shared however a acold email sent a fewer summers agone to Sam Altman changed everything, wherefore helium believes lawyers volition payment alternatively than endure from AI (natch), and however Harvey is tackling the technically analyzable situation of gathering a genuinely multiplayer level — wherever in-house lawyers tin safely chat with extracurricular stakeholders, for illustration — that navigates ethical walls and information permissioning crossed dozens of countries.

This interrogation has been edited lightly for length. For the afloat monty, check retired the podcast.

You started arsenic a first-year subordinate astatine O’Melveny & Myers. What was the infinitesimal you realized AI could alteration ineligible work?

So my co-founder was moving astatine Meta astatine the time; helium was besides my roommate. He was showing maine GPT-3, and successful the beginning, I curse to God, the main usage lawsuit I had for it was moving a Dungeons and Dragons crippled with friends successful LA. Then I was assigned to this landlord-tenant lawsuit astatine O’Melveny, and I didn’t cognize thing astir landlord-tenant law. I started utilizing GPT-3 to enactment connected it.

My co-founder Gabe [Pereyra] and I figured retired we could bash chain-of-thought prompting earlier that was truly a thing. We created this ace agelong chain-of-thought punctual implicit California landlord-tenant statutes. We grabbed 100 questions from r/legaladvice [on Reddit] and ran that punctual implicit them, past gave the question-answer pairs to 3 landlord-tenant attorneys without saying thing astir AI. We conscionable said, ‘A imaginable lawsuit asked this question, here’s the answer—would you marque immoderate edits oregon would you nonstop this arsenic is?’ On 86 of the 100 samples, 2 retired of 3 attorneys oregon much said they would nonstop it with zero edits. That was the infinitesimal wherever we were like, wow, this full manufacture tin beryllium transformed by this technology.

What happened next?

We acold emailed Sam Altman and Jason Kwon, who was the wide counsel astatine OpenAI. We figured we had to email a lawyer due to the fact that different the idiosyncratic wouldn’t cognize if the outputs were right. On the greeting of July 4th astatine 10am — I retrieve this specifically due to the fact that it was July 4th — we got connected a telephone with them and benignant of the remainder of the C-suite astatine OpenAI, and we made our pitch.

Did they constitute a cheque close away?

Yeah. It’s the OpenAI Startup Fund [they are the second-largest capitalist successful Harvey]. OpenAI introduced america to our angel investors astatine the time, Sarah Guo and Elad Gil, and past everything other from determination we were doing ourselves. I really didn’t person immoderate friends that worked successful tech. I didn’t turn up successful San Francisco. I didn’t cognize who the apical VCs were. I didn’t recognize however you’re expected to fundraise. This was each conscionable nett caller to me.

For idiosyncratic who wasn’t acquainted with the VC scene, you’ve raised a batch of money. What enabled you to rise truthful much?

I mightiness accidental thing the VC assemblage mightiness not love, but I powerfully judge that the champion mode to rise wealth is to conscionable marque definite your institution is doing ace well. I deliberation there’s a batch of proposal retired determination astir networking, but to me, the astir important happening is to walk astir the full clip connected your concern and past find VCs that privation to bash that with you. You request to find a fewer partners that you deliberation are going to spell the region with you. 99% of your time, absorption connected the concern going well, and past walk clip trying to find a fewer folks that you truly deliberation you tin spouse with and that volition beryllium determination for you for the agelong run.

You deed $100 cardinal successful ARR successful August. With astir 400 employees, however adjacent are you to break-even?

Compute costs are much costly for america than a batch of different things. We’re operating successful much than 60 countries with information residency laws successful each of them. For a agelong time, if you utilized aggregate models successful your product, you had to bargain a bucket of compute — a minimum threshold — successful each azygous 1 of those countries, adjacent if you didn’t person capable clients yet to enactment that cost.

Germany and Australia person incredibly strict information processing laws. You cannot nonstop fiscal information extracurricular of those countries. We’d acceptable up Azure oregon AWS instances successful each azygous 1 of those countries, but we’d lone usage them to adjacent 3 oregon 4 ample clients. Our margins look precise bully connected a token basis, but they’re worse due to the fact that we person to walk truthful overmuch connected upfront compute crossed truthful galore jurisdictions. That volition get solved implicit time.

Tell america astir your income process. How are you expanding globally?

At the opening of this year, astir 4% of our gross was from corporates and 96% from instrumentality firms. Right now, 33% of our gross is from corporates, and my gut is by the extremity of the year, that looks person to 40%.
In the beginning, we would instrumentality nationalist litigation briefs from Pacer, find the spouse that wrote it, enactment them into Harvey, and amusement them however they could reason against their ain brief. That got monolithic attraction due to the fact that it was applicable to what they conscionable did.

But what was absorbing is erstwhile we got adoption astatine instrumentality firms, the instrumentality firms themselves would assistance america transportation to corporates. A steadfast similar Latham volition present Harvey to clients and say, “Hey, did you cognize this is however we tin usage AI to bash XYZ?” So what started happening was instrumentality firms would really assistance america merchantability to corporates due to the fact that they privation to collaborate successful the system.

You notation to this arsenic “multiplayer.” Can you expound connected this a a increasing country of focus?

This is simply a immense problem. You’ve seen announcements from OpenAI and Microsoft astir shared threads and institution memory. That’s hard — you person to get the permissioning close truthful agents tin entree the close systems. But you’re lone solving it for 1 entity astatine a time.

The secondary occupation we person is: however bash you lick that for a institution positive each its instrumentality firms? You request to get the permissioning close internally and externally. There’s a conception successful ineligible called ethical walls. Think astir a instrumentality steadfast successful the vale that works with 20 VCs. If you’re moving connected a woody for Sequoia but besides moving connected different woody for Kleiner Perkins, what happens if you accidentally springiness each the information connected the Sequoia woody to Kleiner Perkins? Huge, astronomical problem. We person to lick interior permissioning and outer permissioning truthful agents tin enactment correctly, and if you get it wrong, you’re going to person disastrous impacts connected the industry.

Have you solved this?

It’s decidedly successful process. We’re doing each of the information and the permissioning first. The archetypal mentation of this astatine standard volition astir apt beryllium done successful December. The bully happening is due to the fact that specified a precocious percent of our lawsuit basal are already corporates utilizing Harvey, the information occupation is overmuch easier due to the fact that they’ve already gone done information review.

How are lawyers chiefly utilizing Harvey today?

In this order: Number 1 is drafting. Number 2 is probe — that’s emerging due to the fact that we conscionable person a concern with LexisNexis. And the 3rd is analyze. What I mean by analyse is moving 10 questions implicit 100,000 documents, similar what you bash successful diligence oregon discovery.

In the beginning, we had overmuch much transactional usage cases — M&A and money formation. Those are inactive precise popular, and we’re gathering modules specifically for those matters. The country that’s increasing faster is litigation, and a batch of that is due to the fact that you needed the information earlier you could bash it.

Some critics person said Harvey is conscionable a wrapper for ChatGPT. How bash you respond?

The largest vantage we person implicit clip is 2 things. One, we’re collecting a tremendous magnitude of workflow information — what are the main usage cases these models tin really do? Evaluation becomes a beauteous beardown moat due to the fact that however bash you measure the prime of a merger agreement? That becomes truly hard. You person to acceptable up valuation frameworks and agentic systems that tin self-eval each the antithetic steps.

The 2nd strongest moat is our merchandise is becoming precise powerfully multiplayer. This manufacture has 2 sides — providers of ineligible services and consumers. You request to physique a level that’s successful betwixt both. So far, I haven’t seen a rival doing that. We person competitors doing what we bash for instrumentality firms, and competitors doing what we bash for in-house, but I haven’t seen idiosyncratic physique a genuinely multiplayer platform.

In presumption of the “ChatGPT wrapper” disapproval — for 2023 and 2024, a batch of the powerfulness down the merchandise is honestly the exemplary positive front-end enactment that makes the UI and UX easier. But if you’re trying to physique thing wherever I person 100,000 documents successful this information room, 5,000 emails astir this M&A, each these antithetic statutes and codes, and I privation a strategy wherever I tin inquire questions implicit each of those pieces combined with precocious accuracy — that’s the beatified grail. We’ve created each the pieces, and what we’ve been gathering for the past mates months is pulling that together.

What’s your concern model?

Right present it’s mostly seats, but we’re moving to much outcome-based pricing arsenic the workflows get much complex. You privation to bash both. You privation outcome-based pricing for precise tiny things that you tin guarantee person the nonstop aforesaid level of accuracy arsenic a human, oregon better, with precise precocious speed. But the world is you’re going to privation a lawyer successful the loop for truthful overmuch of work.

For astatine slightest the adjacent twelvemonth oregon two, it’s a productivity suite sold seat-based and multiplayer betwixt instrumentality firms and their in-house teams. Slowly implicit time, we’ll physique much consumption-based workflows arsenic the systems get amended and much close than humans successful immoderate areas. But it’s not going to beryllium similar you automate an full M&A — it’s going to beryllium circumstantial pieces of diligence wherever you tin person disclosure agents automate the archetypal pass, past person lawyers leap successful and bash the rest.

You mentioned to america earlier that penetration is truly debased successful legal. How low?

What percent of the lawyers connected Earth are utilizing Harvey close now? It’s a ace debased percentage. There are 8 oregon 9 cardinal lawyers connected Earth. But the much absorbing constituent is we are unbelievably aboriginal innings connected however analyzable of enactment these systems tin do. They’re precise adjuvant and radical are getting unthinkable ROI, but if you deliberation astir what percent of ineligible enactment tin these systems bash contiguous versus what I deliberation it tin bash successful the adjacent 5 years — it’s truthful overmuch lower.

Think astir the usage lawsuit as, what is the worth per token. The ineligible fees for a merger could easy beryllium tens of millions of dollars. The artifact you person aft that merger is simply a merger statement and an SPA — possibly 200 pages total. What is the worth per token connected that papers that required $20 cardinal oregon $30 cardinal of ineligible fees to generate? Those are the types of usage cases where, erstwhile I accidental we’re astatine incredibly debased penetration, it’s that we aren’t astatine the constituent wherever you tin bash thing similar that. And the worth of being capable to bash that accurately is incredibly high.

What happens to inferior lawyers who are nary longer getting the apprenticeship they mightiness person had successful the past?

I attraction astir this perchance much than thing other astatine the institution due to the fact that I was a inferior lawyer precise recently. The extremity of instrumentality firms successful the adjacent 5 to 10 years is: however accelerated tin you bid the champion partners? I deliberation close now, that’s partially the goal, but partially the extremity is we prosecute armies of associates and measure them retired a lot. Whether it’s due to the fact that things go outcome-based pricing oregon due to the fact that partners tin complaint much if AI systems can’t bash what they do, the astir important happening financially for a instrumentality steadfast is to marque definite you’re hiring, training, and processing lawyers that get to being a spouse arsenic accelerated arsenic humanly possible.

If you tin physique tools that tin bash the archetypal walk of an M&A, that is simply a one-on-one tutor for a inferior associate. We enactment with a batch of instrumentality schools. You tin ideate astatine immoderate constituent you person an AI merger that you bash successful Harvey — the system’s teaching you, giving you real-time feedback. That’s an unthinkable grooming system. If you tin physique systems that tin really bash a batch of the tasks, there’s nary crushed you couldn’t crook that into 1 of the champion acquisition platforms possible.

With your valuation jumping from $3 cardinal to $8 cardinal successful little than a year, what are your plans for aboriginal fundraising?

Fundraising ample rounds is not thing we person planned anytime soon. We don’t request that overmuch money, and we aren’t burning a brainsick amount. The crushed I did a batch of fundraising this twelvemonth is determination are probe directions that are going to necessitate a batch of compute, and we wanted to hole ourselves for that. In presumption of nationalist markets, that’s decidedly what we’re funny successful agelong term. I can’t springiness you thing adjacent to a timeline, but we’re interested.