01 Apr 2019 Spotlight on Qase

Describe your company and its product.

Qase connects people with lawyers who can help them with their everyday legal problems online.

What year did your company start?

2018

Which city (or cities) are you located?

We’re based in Vancouver, but our target market is global.

Describe your company culture in three words.

Warm. Quirky. Fun.

How do you celebrate company or employee wins?

Wine and cheese at our office overlooking Burrard Inlet.

What is the problem that you are trying to solve?

Over half of Canadians will encounter at least one legal problem in any three-year period. Most never seek help from a lawyer, and those that do are frequently unhappy with the service they get. By making it easy and convenient for people to get legal services, and ensuring costs are transparent and predictable, we will help millions of Canadians get the legal support they need.

What is your biggest milestone to date?

Launching our service in BC this year.

What is your biggest challenge?

Prioritizing our work. Our vision for transforming the way people find and work with lawyers is grand, but our resources are constrained. We are continually reviewing and adjusting our priorities to ensure that, at any given time, we are focused on the things that matter most.

What is your motto?

Your lawyer. Online.

How are you making an impact?

Access to justice is a huge issue in BC and around the world. Qase provides its platform to lawyers free of charge when they use it to offer pro-bono services to clients.

What is your hope for the future of tech in BC?

BC has already given birth to several legal technology startups. We want BC to be seen as the most significant incubator of legal technology innovation in the world.

Lightning Round with Dan Zollmann, Co-founder & CEO of Qase

What excites you about your job?

Every day I’m challenged to learn more and be a better leader.

What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome?

I had a pretty chaotic home life growing up. It helped develop lots of resilience, but it wasn’t easy.

If you can give advice to your 20-year-old self, what would you say?

Take more chances, and take them sooner.

What are your pet peeves?

Own your own stuff – if you’ve made a mistake, share it so that we can all learn from it.

Words of wisdom to other tech CEOs or founders?

Listen to words of wisdom from other tech CEOs and founders. Seriously – smart people learn from their mistakes, but really smart people learn from the mistakes of others.

Favourite city you visited?

I love cities – can’t give you one. New York, Barcelona, Perth, Jerusalem, Austin. The list goes on.

What is your formula for success?

Work through problems as a team: 90% of the time, the answer we are looking for is in the room. If we ask each other the right questions and listen carefully to each other’s answers, we’ll find a solution.

Name one book that everyone should read.

Jane Jacobs – The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It’s not only the foundation for contemporary urban planning, but it also contains amazing insights into the nature of how economies grow and develop.

How do you decompress?

Music always does it for me – whether seeing live shows, working out, or picking up one of my guitars.

Favourite movie?

That’s tough – so many to choose from. I was just down in LA and wound up touring an old building that was the primary setting for Bladerunner, so let’s say that one today.