We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jackson Killion a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jackson thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the early days of establishing your own firm. What can you share?

After a few years in the startup world, I started to have friends who were starting their own company, raising money, or dealing with other startup issues. I was working as GC for a startup and while we both enjoyed the relationship, they couldn’t (rightfully) justify the compensation that I was looking to receive. After a conversation about that with the CEO, we decided it made sense to allow me to spin up my own law firm on the side so that I could continue to support the company while supplementing my income in a way that made us both happier. I focus on making sure that each of my clients feels important and heard, keeping things casual, and striving to have quick turnarounds and easy access for my clients. So far, that strategy has worked. Typically, the hardest steps with setting up your own firm are securing clients and figuring out pricing. Having been in the startup seen for a while when I decided to do this, I already had a fair amount of friends in the startup and VC space providing advice and I also had an idea of the landscape of law firms in the area and typical rates. On the securing clients side, I’ve never really been one for networking events or self-promotion but instead focused on the product I was providing to clients. It appears that has worked as my practice has continued to spread year over year solely through word-of-mouth referrals.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

With over eight years of work experience in the legal field, I am a passionate and driven founder and attorney. I founded Caddis Consulting Ltd., a boutique law firm that provides legal services to startups, investors, and entrepreneurs.

I serve as advisor, fractional general counsel, and in other capacities to numerous startups in almost every industry, including tech, CPG, cannabis, and non-profits, and for Denver Angels, one of the largest and most active angel groups in the United States. I’ve worked with multiple clients that graduated from Y Combinator, Techstars, Boomtown, Canopy, 43North, and other accelerator programs and handled financings and funding in excess of $400m. My clients have funders and investors including Chan Zuckerburg, Tim Draper, Bill Tai, Tom Golisano, the Walton family, Harold McGraw, the Denver Broncos, and part of the St. Louis Blues ownership group. I’ve worked with clients to negotiate and review contracts related to partnerships and financing from Discover, Doordash, Lending Club Bank, Dwolla, and other publicly traded and large companies.

My mission is to empower and enable entrepreneurs and investors to achieve their goals and grow their businesses and I strive to bring diverse perspectives and experiences to the teams I work with. My goal is for clients to think of me as more than their attorney and provide advice and guidance on anything business or legal-related.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

People always think the startup/VC community is huge as it is spread across the US, but really it isn’t. I’ve completed multiple deals with the same VCs, startups, and law firms over the years and it is rare to not have at least one mutual acquaintance when you have been in the space long enough. Because of this, reputation is everything. As someone who has always taken a somewhat unconventional, casual approach to business relationships sometimes my method of communication and laid-back style surprises people initially. However, after an initial conversation, the takeaway is usually that it is clear that I know what I am talking about and people generally prefer the more causal and frank conversations than the drawn-out and more formal discussions. This is something I’ve specifically heard clients say when referring new clients. Because of this, I’ve continued to try to mold a reputation where it is clean I have the knowledge necessary but my startup clients can relate to me substantially more than some older partner at a law firm wearing a suit to every meeting who doesn’t understand tech or their businesses and it seems like my clients generally enjoy working with me more because of that.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for me is my existing clients. I haven’t spent a single dollar on marketing since I launched my law firm other than buying a domain and setting up a website (which I did myself). My mentality has always been if I put out a good product for my clients, do great work for them, and they enjoy working with me, they will always recommend me over anyone else. So far, this seems to hold true. To date, I haven’t had a single client fire me and I have clients that I’ve been working with for 8+ years. I’ve even had clients that I worked with that were acquired and then worked with those founders from those companies on their next endeavors. Nothing is worth more than your reputation and respect from people who have actually used your services when it comes to those folks referring new clients. When I have an intro from one of my existing or previous clients to a new potential client, I know that the potential client trusts that person making the referral and is likely going to go with me unless there are any red flags in the intro meeting or they need something outside of my practice area. Going into those intro calls with that situation and being teed up from a great intro from an existing client is all anyone can ask for when it comes to securing new clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.caddisconsulting.co/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackson-killion-a0761352/