Today's guest is Joshua Browder, the co-founder and CEO of DoNotPay, the world's first robot lawyer. He has helped consumers win back over $100M in parking tickets, subscriptions, and more. His mission is to use technology to empower consumers to represent themselves and protect their rights. In this episode, Joshua speaks to host Sabrina Halper about his childhood during his father Bill Browder's fight against Russia's human rights violations, teaching himself how to code, moving across the world to attend Stanford, the inception story of DoNotPay, joining the Thiel Fellowship, living in the house that Facebook was built in, helping customers of Celsius, angel investing, the issues with the modern day legal practice, and his insights into the flaws of American bureaucracy. Please follow, subscribe, and let us know what you think!
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Connect with Josh on Twitter: @JBrowder1 & Instagram: @JoshuaBrowder12 to follow his journey.
Engage with HOF on Twitter to hear our latest investments & thesis: @HOFCapital & https://hofcapital.com/.
Get to know me, your host, Sabrina on Twitter: @SabrinaHalper & Instagram: @sabloves.
Reach out at Shalper@hofcapital.com with any feedback, requests for guests, or if you're building something to shape the future ❤️ .
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Early life & biggest lessons from his father Bill Browder
3:05 - What he expected to do with his life
3:50 - Experience at Stanford
4:55 - Thiel Fellowship
5:50 - Experience interfacing with Peter Thiel
6:25 - Biggest takeaway from Thiel Fellowship
7:22 - Inception story of DoNotPay
10:30 - Viral Growth
11:10 - Early days of building the company / Living in the house Facebook was built in
12:25 - Helping consumers sue Celsius
14:15 - Will celsius consumers get their money back
14:37 - The protectionism and inaccessibility of modern day legal practice in the US
16:25 - Using software to empower consumers to represent themselves
16:50 - Future of robot lawyers and which issues will never be autonomous
17:50 - The issues with American bureaucracy today & effects of covid on legal system
19:05 - DoNotPay's new products to combat institutional racism
21:30 - How to adapt and think about changing market conditions and tech cycles 23:40 - Ultimate vision for DoNotPay
24:55 - Do you feel empathy for the business owners?
26:09 - His unique approach to angel investing
28:16 - Current conflict in Ukraine and views on where it will go + Putin
29:35 - What makes him optimistic about the future - Vertical farming & nuclear fission
30:32 - What modern behaviors or practices will be outdated and optimized out of?
31:25 - Views on crypto
32:25 - Outro