myRight: sky rocket success at BGH and a Founder’s Exit
Today, the BGH ruled on a myRight case that Volkswagen must compensate all car buyers, be it new or secondhand, in the dieselgate emission scandal. No one needs to jump to the US anymore to get compensation. The Germans and their nirvana-like legal system ultimately managed to get the ball over the line, too. I guess there will be some press on how we picked and pushed the case to ultimately win it, so I will leave further comments on the VW-pony-litigation-trick-show for later.
Next bummer: I have sold all my shares in Nexxt Legal Labs, the myRight holding company, to my co-founders Sven and Jens on 30th of April. I have left already all operational positions in myRight and laid down my managing director mandate in the holding. Read the story here:
As said, we’ve got the ball over the line now and that gives room for new projects and personal development.
It was in May 2016 that Sven Bode and myself decided to take on VW in the dieselgate case. It was the kick-off for what later became the consumer rights platform myRight, its B2B-pendant financialright and our technology company LegalTech Systems, which we put all together under our holding Nexxt Legal Labs. Jens Hopfer joined in late 2016 as Co-Founder.
I am really grateful to everyone I had the pleasure to work with and a special thank goes to Sven and Jens for the positive way they dealt with my exit. Obviously, building a company is a tough job, but leaving the company is much harder.
I know, everyone will want to know why we split and there is nothing secret behind it. Each company can be run in different modes as there are many ways to Rome. Though still sailing for the same destination, we felt we less and less agreed on which route to go, which sails to set and which anchor to use. Again, it was not about “good” or “bad”, “right” or “wrong” but rather about style, pace and focus. The issues were not dramatic in themselves, but in considering whether to go again “all-in” for the next five years, we felt going separate ways was just the better option.
Exiting is one of the rare opportunities where saying thank you is really meaningful and I want to do this here.
First and foremost I thank all our employees, clients and business partners for their dedicated and continuing support from day one. All together, we carved out from scratch a new way providing access to justice which has resulted in serving over 50.000 clients from more than 15 nations. We brought well over 2 billion Euro of value in dispute to German courts being financed by the leading institutions in the field. We injected more than 50 million Euros of capital into the German legal system, financing court and advocate fees as well as adverse costs (following the famous Munich I verdict, to inter alia Freshfields, Hengeler and Noerr went more than a seven digit number of adverse costs…). As a founder, one can provide the mere initial spark, but the fire is being run by the people and partners subsequently joining the mission the founder’s spark has ignited. Thanks!
Going back to Freshfields & Co, we also build a whole industry fighting our business model. Usually, as a founder one can be proud to ignite a new business. In our case, we ignited two. The business “on the other side” is probably equally compelling and it is really unfortunate, that one cannot earn on the other side as well… :-) Though the latter is not quite true. In fact, we have benefitted heavily from Freshfields & Co. running against us. I name Freshfields because from all papers which we received, in my personal opinion, they were the ones leading the counter-field in quality, depth and creativity. In particular Patrick Schroeder and his team have constantly served hard nuts to crack and by doing so, they also pushed us to new skills, capabilities and insight. Thanks, Patrick!
But thanking Patrick Schroeder wouldn’t be sufficient as, when it really mattered, he showed up with his partner in crime, Martin Henssler, a professor from the river Rhine. Which ever argument Patrick needed in fighting myRight, he got it ready to court-serve from the opinion bakery down the river selling not only crackled crust and pillowy centres but also razor sharp arguments. As everyone would rightfully assume, in a world where money to defend VW didn’t play a role, Freshfields and VW hired a whole bunch a bakers for making up defense arguments. But their works were usually easy stuff, nothing to worry about, debating for beginners. But Martin Henssler was the one being capable to write really well-thought arguments in also applaudable style. From a professional point of view, some of the best works one gets to see in the field. Thanks, Martin, to let us learn from you! And I hope you didn’t take it personal that the BGH in its LegalTech-Urteil was also up to the game and took the law from the textbooks and not the sweet river buns which many lawyers still prefer.
Of course, also many thanks go to Hausfeld! I cannot name everyone here, but the success story of Hausfeld in German is really remarkable and unparalleled. Alex Petrasincu and Wolf von Bernuth have exactly what you need when your opponent nearly daily comes up with the unexpected and when personal skill needs to be combined with a healthy mixture of experience and creativity. Without them, myRight would have been an easy bite for VW.
Jörn Eschment has not only build an impressive DACH presence at Burford, but was always a thoughtful and knowledgeable advisor when innovative solutions for an “old legal world” where required. Same is true for Thomas Kohlmeier. I think it is fair to say that under Nexxt Legal Labs we had projects with nearly all major litigation funders, many of them not publicly known. But not so with Nivalion, the firm led by Thomas. But nevertheless, Thomas had and has an open ear and many times had the telephone number which took us out of a dead-end street. Thanks!
When Patrick teamed up with Martin & co also we were in need of support to level the playing field. That leverage came in particular in with Volker Römermann, Markus Hartung and Klaus Tolksdorf. Thanks!
My interest in LegalTech began when I got a brief introduction into the then flightright system back in 2010. Philipp Kadelbach switched on his computer and a large case data base opend up with a system behind it which shuffled cases from one status to the next. When other people were tapping beer in bars, Philipp and Sven were tapping cases. Pretty genius in a time when everyone else dreamed of the billable hour. Thanks, Philipp, for the most impactful introduction ever!
And last but not least my colleagues at myRight. Thanks for tolerating me as founder and managing director; thanks for joining the mission which Sven and myself set sail for in early 2016! I know, that was very often not an easy job…
So I have left. What remains? I guess, two things.
First one is a personal achievement: With Sven and Jens, I have co-founded and a build a company which I can leave now and which will continue our mission in providing access to justice. Most start-ups fail, many depend forever on their founders. Not so myRight. No founder could ever ask for more. To be honest, I believe the firm will even do better without me. It’s like raising a child which now is grown-up. Time to let go…
Second, we have kicked-off a debate on how to serve access to justice. In any democracy, an easy access to justice should be a continuous area of improvement. Our projects have more than sparked a debate in that area and if all this will be to the benefit of a broader society one day, I shall be more than grateful.
Thanks for four great years!
JEA
Co-Founder & Managing Director at MYFLYRIGHT GmbH
4yChapeau! Amazing journey!
Rechtsanwältin IT-Recht
4ySuper geschrieben und spannend zu lesen, Eike! Und Glückwunsch noch zum BGH-Urteil! Bin gespannt, wohin es dich als nächstes verschlägt.
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4yDear Jan-Eike, what a thoughtful way to say good bye. And indeed, we all are big fans of FF that help us developing and sharpening legal grounds. Hope to catch up next time you visit Vienna. All the best for you. Und immer eine Handbreit Wasser unterm Kiel!
Building the future - Flexible Legal Staffing, Document Review, Lease Abstraction Services
4yEin großartiger Erfolg. Wir wünschen dir viel Erfolg bei den nächsten Projekten!
Managing Partner at Chevalier
4yGreat achievements, well done! Thank you for letting me be part of the story, fighting against the rhenish professor... And also thank you for the best and most entertaining fare-well message I have ever come across. That has style, unlike many others.