There aren’t many people who turn their back on an Olympic dream to become a lawyer, but Tom Dunlop is one of them.
He’s the founder and CEO of Manchester-based LegalTech Summize and is the latest guest on The Naked Founder podcast.
Earlier this year, Summize raised $50m (£40m) in a Series B investment round and has just acquired the key assets and staff from Seattle consultancy InnoLaw Group.
After swapping a successful badminton career for a legal one, he became an in-house lawyer at AppSense, where he met high-profile entrepreneur Charles Sharland.
While working as a lawyer, Dunlop recognised how technology could speed up legal processes, so he launched Summize, and Sharland became an early investor.
“One of the things that Charles instilled in me and the business very early on was that you have to be paranoid about the future,” he told The Naked Founder podcast.
“Never not be paranoid. There should be things breaking left, right and centre because you are always pushing the boundary. If things are going nice and going well you’re not paranoid enough.”
Dunlop’s own story is remarkable. As a junior badminton player, he was ranked No 1 in Europe and was untouchable among his peers, even earning the nickname ‘Killer’ from some of his team-mates.
However, as he got older, he realised he couldn’t compete with the very best badminton players in the world, so pursued a legal career instead.
“The moment I started to lose (in badminton) it did have a big effect on me personally and I couldn’t deal with it well,” Dunlop admitted.
The qualities that served him well in elite-level sport enabled him to transition into a successful business career.
The first iteration of Summize was to use technology to summarise weighty legal contracts.
After raising £250k in pre-seed investment in 2019, the Manchester-headquartered tech firm went on to raise £2m in seed funding and £5m in Series A funding from YFM and Maven in 2022.
Earlier this year, Summize went to a different level after announcing a $50m (£40m) Series B raise following five successive years of 100%+ ARR growth.
Today, Summize employs more than 100 staff, with offices in Manchester, Boston and, most recently, San Diego.
The US is now its biggest market, and Dunlop said there’s a different mindset between the US and the UK.
Different mindset in US
“When I go to America, particularly in San Francisco and the West Coast, they’re born with this immediate feeling that they will be the best in the world,” he said.
Earlier this month, Summize acquired key assets and staff from Seattle-based consultancy InnoLaw Group as part of its growth strategy.
Dunlop said the deal represented a ‘significant step’ for the company following the completion of a £40m funding and investment round at the start of the year.
The Naked Founder is sponsored by Financielle – The Home of Money for Women. You can listen to the episode here.