As LLM’s become exponentially better it is clear that vertical AI agents are key to the next generation of billion dollar SaaS companies. In this episode of the Lightcone, the hosts sit down with YC alum Jake Heller, the co-founder and CEO of Casetext (which sold to Thomson Reuters for $650 million in cash in 2023) to discuss what it takes to build a successful vertical AI company and overcome resistance from industry veterans and skeptics.
00:00 Intro
01:40 Building a successful vertical AI company
06:05 The unique challenges of law and AI
09:24 The turning point for lawyers with ChatGPT
11:25 Finding product market fit in legal
15:04 Entering deep founder mode
20:40 Approaching prompt engineering step by step
25:05 Going beyond GPT wrappers
28:10 Aiming for 100% accuracy
30:48 Thoughts on o1’s capabilities
36:42 Outro
