The Future Is Now: Oleksii Orovetskiy of Loio On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up How We Write Contracts
Because of the things I have or have not done, I have become the person I am today. There is nothing I would change or regret. I’m just grateful for everything and everyone I have had in my life. I guess that’s the lesson I’d love to pass on.
As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Oleksii Orovetskiy, Head of Product at Loio, an AI-powered Microsoft Word add-in for faster contract review and editing. A seasoned IT veteran with over 15 years of experience in developing B2C and B2B SaaS products globally, Oleksii is leading the creation of the legal tech product that can potentially influence the lives of over one million legal professionals in the U.S. and beyond.
Named a Legal Software Product Leader by the advanced business software discovery platform Crozdesk, Loio has also been featured among the Top 3 Free Contract Analytics Software and the Top 8 Free Document Drafting Solutions Software by the world’s leading B2B software and services review platform G2.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Happy to be here!
I graduated from the university as a Manager of Foreign Economic Activity being 100% certain I would never work as a manager of any kind. So, I started out as a programmer.
It wasn’t long before my fascination with the “why” rather than the “how” behind the product prompted my then-boss to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He offered me to try out the role of Product Manager and build a team and all the processes from scratch. I did it and, at one point, managed a team of nine professionals.
But the time passed. The product grew out of the stage of active development into the stage of maintenance. I felt I was ready for new challenges. That’s when Loio’s team found me. I felt immediately hooked by the company’s mission, approaches to work, as well as its fast growth and great potential! That’s how I found myself building a legal tech product that can improve the lives and performance of over one million legal professionals worldwide.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
No one likes to talk about their failures. And I think we should.
My story is about the importance of the right communication between stakeholders. At my previous company, we almost lost our major client to miscommunication. We committed ourselves to build a tailored functionality for this client, which took us months. But somehow we failed to check up with our implementation team and take their requirements into account. When building the functionality, we based our decisions on the international implementation standards. Meanwhile, our client needed a customized solution.
Luckily, we managed to retain that client. But it was a huge lesson for us.
Here’s the main takeaway. Assuming that everyone knows everything is a very dangerous path. You have to ensure that all stakeholders know all the key things about the project. These are expectations, requirements, and a timeline.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
We are using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies to help contract pros speed up contract review. This is the most advanced technology stack there is to date.
Drafting, reviewing, and editing contracts is an extremely important job. But it can also be very mundane, time-consuming, and irritating. There are many little things that make the whole process far less pleasant than it could be. Contracts are long, deadlines are tight, typos and inaccuracies are ubiquitous. Besides, the risk of making a mistake is high.
As a Microsoft Word add-in for faster contract review and editing, Loio gives lawyers, paralegals, contract drafters and negotiators (you name it) a map to their contracts. It solves the problem of consistency. Loio showcases all the key elements of the contract such as names, dates, and places, among others. It also helps fix broken formatting, as well as quickly check references and numbering. My personal favorite is a feature that shows if the date is past due or a weekend day.
By using Loio, legal professionals break free from mind-numbing routine tasks that are more suitable to a machine. Instead, they can focus on what humans do best, that is creative, rewarding, and higher-risk tasks.
All of this translates into boosted efficiency, more satisfied customers, and the ability for law firms, legal departments, and independent professionals to differentiate from their competitors by being innovation-friendly.
How do you think this might change the world?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 813,900 lawyers and 337,800 paralegals and legal assistants in the U.S. alone. Loio has the potential to make all these professionals much more effective and satisfied with their jobs.
Even if not each of them deals with contracts on a daily basis, chances are that someone in their teams is. This means that either way we can better the performance of legal teams — be they a legal department, a law firm, or a one-person operation. This way, they will get the chance to bring even more value to their clients. From our numerous conversations with law practitioners, we know that it’s crucial for them and their employees. It’s also becoming increasingly important as the legal industry is getting more customer-centric.
Another aspect I hope Loio can influence is mental health management. The legal profession is known to be extremely stressful. Tight deadlines are a huge part of this stress. By speeding up routine work, legal pros get control over deadlines. This way, they become much happier human beings with more time for creative activities and, by extension, lives.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
While working on a previous project — an edtech startup — we were surprised at how much time our legal team would spend on the routine task of contract review. Our lawyers were simply drowning in the ever-growing number of contracts and were becoming sadder and sadder. It was unbearable to witness this growing frustration. Knowing that technology could make the matter much better by automating some stages of the process, we set out to work.
For now, our product best fits the needs of solo law entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized law firms, and legal departments. We have already enjoyed positive feedback from our clients!
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
An excellent product speaks for itself.
However, launching massive marketing campaigns that showcase our biggest benefits for small and medium-sized law firms, legal departments, and independents practitioners is still the best way to promote Loio.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We’ve been using a variety of marketing and PR strategies to learn from our potential clients and simultaneously educate them about our product.
I’m particularly proud of our blog created to bring value as a knowledge hub for legal professionals of any kind. Some of our articles have enjoyed thousands of views! Our stars are our guide for law firms to adopting legal tech, a piece on the benefits of legal tech, a Microsoft Word guide, and a LinkedIn guide for lawyers. Also, we are particularly grateful for being able to feature such legal experts as Lisa Lang and Colin Levy in our interview series!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’d say that my manager from the previous company is my mentor. I remember our heart-to-heart talks when having a walk around our office in Silicon Valley. By the way, our first office was located in the same building as Steve Jobs’ wife’s charity organization.
It was my then-boss who offered me my first job as a Product Manager and believed in me enormously. He trusted in my abilities long before I had earned it. For example, he would invite me to important business meetings when I was just starting out. This made me feel that I could do much more than I could imagine at that point — and I did it. He would also help me ask the right questions when setting goals or discussing tasks and direct me towards the right solutions.
I am very thankful for this!
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
As the Head of Product, I serve as a mentor educating my team and helping them grow personally and professionally. What’s more, I teach a course in Product Management and am a frequent speaker at industry events. That’s my contribution 🙂 I spread the joy of learning!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
I don’t have any 🙂 Because of the things I have or have not done, I have become the person I am today. There is nothing I would change or regret. I’m just grateful for everything and everyone I have had in my life. I guess that’s the lesson I’d love to pass on.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’d start a movement promoting self-confidence.
I have met so many talented people who have not reached their fullest potential just because they doubted themselves. They would more often concentrate on a negative rather than a positive scenario. Meanwhile, everyone should remember that those who cultivate an abundance mindset win.
I believe it’s better to take a leap of faith and learn from the results. Be brave and fail fast. Sticking to the agile methodology pays off both in professional and personal life.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
To be honest, inspirational quotes are not my cup of tea. I’d rather learn from the wins and failures of other people by analyzing their motives and decisions.
However, there is one phrase I find curious: “Be brave, go nuts.” It’s cool, isn’t it? 🙂
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Our product is truly great! So, delivering an elevator pitch will be easy for me.
Loio is a Microsoft Word add-in for faster contract review and editing. It uses the power of machine learning to deliver three key benefits:
- boosted effectiveness and reduced stress for end-users;
- more value brought to clients;
- innovation as a competitive edge.
Requiring an investment of $19 per month and virtually no change management efforts, Loio is a win-win for legal professionals, their clients, and employees.
The Future Is Now: Oleksii Orovetskiy of Loio On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
