Last month, a company called HelloPrenup was featured on Shark Tank and received an investment of $150,000 Nirav Tolia and Kevin O’Leary in exchange for 15% ownership. Maybe as important as the investment itself was the exposure the company got by being on the show.
The founders of HelloPrenup are divorce lawyer Julia Rodgers and software engineer Sarabeth Jaffe. Their concept is simple….. the website creates a prenuptial agreement for a couple based on their answers to a lengthy questionnaire and thorough financial disclosures. You get a prenup without having to visit (and pay for) a lawyer.
The company launched in 2020, relaunched in early 2021, and only had $20,000 in lifetime sales as of July 2021. So this is very new. But the Shark Tank appearance has increased website traffic massively, and of course, sales have skyrocketed too.
I’m calling this a prenup in a box. It’s a simple do-it-yourself process that costs $599 on the HelloPrenup website, rather than the typical cost of $5,000 (and up) through an attorney. I love the idea of empowering consumers to get what they need easily and in a cost-effective manner. For those with more complicated financial situations, however, you’re better off doing a traditional prenup process with an attorney.
Of course, the company is careful to say they are not providing legal advice. There are rules about practicing law that no one wants to run afoul of. But these women have found a niche that I think will continue to grow: people who want and need legal guidance, have a limited budget, and have the skills for a DIY project. Some attorneys think services like this will take work away from them, but the truth is that these services fulfill a need for consumers who are unlikely to hire an attorney.
But this is the future of legal services. There are more companies emerging that offer legal services to consumers at a lower cost, and it’s more of a do-it-yourself process. Almost two years ago I wrote about It’s Over Easy, a website where you can do your own divorce. I can’t wait to see what other innovative ideas for legal services will pop up in the next few years.
