As Product lawyers & strategic negotiators in high-growth tech companies, we all have many examples of complex legal, business and operational issues that arise on a daily basis and for which startup lawyers often lack a network to help answer.
For some issues, legal firms may be able to help but for many issues traditional advisors lack the operational and practical experience to give the advice you need, as a Product Counsel in a fast growing company. In many cases, using external lawyers or consultants is less efficient (and more costly) than doing it in-house using your own knowledge of the business to determine the best route forward.
But as exciting as it is to be able to make yourself into an expert in a subject in the course of a few weeks or months, it is also crazy that this was the reality and that curious minds lacked a forum to exchange on these type of subjects. After reaching out to peers around the market in similar roles, it was clear that nothing like this existed. There are global and regional lawyers' networks for startups, but nothing created for Product lawyers in fast growing companies. So, the APC founding members, decided to startup a network to fix this. Who better to engage with than your peers going through the same things?
Today, our membership spans a variety of industries and areas of expertise (from fintech to Big Tech, from insurtech to legaltech). Tomorrow, it will span even more. We've helped build companies from the UK, France, Sweden and the US. Among those companies represented are: Google, Monzo, Klarna, Qonto, Adyen, Meta, Alan, Swile, Algolia, Payfit, Lydia and Yousign. We get the challenges here, the end game which Product teams and all businesses are trying to solve: how to create a profitable business and how to do it in a way that will enable long-term success. We apply our skills to make that happen.
In Europe, as with most things in startup and VC world, the concept of Product Counsel is far less developed than in the US. Lawyers in startups are often one man/woman bands covering every possible issue concerning the company and consequently with little-to-no time to devote to the product or strategic projects of the companies they work for if they don’t involve "obvious" legal work (eg. M&A/fundraising).
In continental Europe also, there is a tendency towards lawyers acting as the stereotype has them (staying in their legal box, being very academic/theoretical, not taking the big picture into account). A top quality Product Counsel is about as far from this stereotype as it’s possible to be.
But this stereotype of law and "legal" things means that:
- the Product Counsel role is not well known/valued,
- where it exists, it is viewed with a scepticism that needs defeating; and
- sometimes the role is not well done (which contributes to the point above).
So the APC aims to:
1. Share legal & operational advice amongst lawyers in high growth companies.
2. Educate people on the role of a Product Counsel and its importance in a fast growing company.
3. Unite the most talented Product Counsel in a network to enable the exchange of ideas that is lacking today.
To bring us all together to ask ourselves: how can we do things better? How can we help our companies to become and remain leaders in their markets for many decades to come? After all, in companies going through exponential growth, or even just solid 50% YoY growth, we’re rarely doing things as efficiently as possible and we can always, always learn how to do it better next time... (#kaizen)
Luke O'Leary,
APC Founder & Head of Legal @ Qonto
