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August 8, 2014
PropellHer
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Paul Lupson Interview Co-Founder of LawPath

From his origins of working at the BBC to creating million dollar business ideas, Paul Lupson has learnt the to-dos and the not-to-dos of creating a new business. His newest enterprise, LawPath, is no exception to his successful track record. Lupson hopes that the company will revolutionise the industry by making legal services more accessible to individuals and businesses through online resources.

What was the idea that initially inspired you to start LawPath?

We came up with the idea for LawPath when I was going through a legal issue and I was running a business. I’d been involved in that business since conception. It [the company] went so well that we were able to sell it for a huge amount of money. But the issue was we didn’t have any legal documentation at the beginning. The inevitable happened, there was a dispute about who got what. It was [a] learning curve.

Who is the most inspirational woman in your life and why?

My very first boss when I worked at the BBC in London. She was the business manager and she inspired me with her rule; which was “just do it”. She just got on with things. Same with my wife, she is in marketing. That’s what I really admire; people who don’t think about it from a female or male perspective, they think about it from a job perspective. If you just do as good a job as anyone, you’ll do well whether you’re male or female.

What was the final push that made you finally take the step between the big idea and creating the business?

I’ve done this a few times before. You have to be more shrew, you have to be more agile and you’ve got to be able to adapt to the market. LawPath is a great platform to do this and it’s an area of law that is pretty untouched. It’s one of the last industries to tumble into the digital revolution. And that’s what LawPath is doing. We’re revolutionising the whole way that people contact a lawyer and that’s what really excites me.

Do you see this service as beneficial to female clients?

We get a lot of female question askers and a lot of family law. And obviously that’s a frightening subject. It’s not one of those things that you just chat about with your friends. It’s an anonymous service online that allows you to access the best family or divorce lawyers or whatever the issue may be without having to confront somebody of what could be a male dominated market.

Did anyone ever tell you “no” or “you can’t”? How did you overcome this?

Constantly. Sometimes I’ve thought “maybe I shouldn’t” but then I usually do anyway because if you’ve got the idea you want to see it through. And sometimes with the big changes people will say it’s possible. And if you’re told no, ignore it and carry on anyway and just do it differently until you get it right.

What is the one piece of advice that you wish someone had given you when you were starting your first business?

Get the legals in order at the very beginning. So if you’re in a café discussing an idea with somebody, make sure you get some form of documentation. It just makes everything much easier from then onwards because you’ve got the dirty stuff done and out of the way so you can actually focus on the business.

WORDS BY Lauren Piggott. You can access LawPath online here. If you would like to find out more about your particular field, ask any of our mentors a question through our Q&A page.

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