# The 10-Year “Overnight” Success Story of Casetext

**Author:** Garry Tan
**Type:** Video
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/KJ-the-10-year-overnight-success-story-of-casetext
**YouTube ID:** qFBUd0b8TjY

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[Casetext](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/casetext) started out in 2013 as a crowdsourced law library — a sort of
“Wikipedia meets reddit” for the law.

Ten years later, Casetext is one of the biggest mega wins to date in AI, capable of turning *weeks* of arduous legal
work into hours or minutes. Just months ago [it was acquired for $650 million
dollars](https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/26/thomson-reuters-buys-casetext-an-ai-legal-tech-startup-for-650m-in-cash/).

What happened between those two points?

For this episode of Main Function, YC President Garry Tan sits down with Casetext co-founder Jake Heller to learn the
real story of their 10-year “overnight” success: the 3 a.m. origin story, how the company evolved as fast as tech would
allow, and the “magic demo” that helped turn Casetext into a rocket ship.

