After several experiences in law firms, Rui Cabrita (MSc 2006) has recently launched its own company: Solegal. Already finalist  for the Lawyers Innovation Award, our graduate looks back on his career and gives his ambitions.

EDHEC Alumni :  Can you explain briefly how your company came about )?

Rui Cabrita : I met Fabien, who would later become my associate, during my final internship as a student-lawyer in 2007 after an MSc at EDHEC’s Nice campus. The meetings we had with students, who had very different profiles from those in the law faculties, probably helped develop my entrepreneurial mindset. I quickly developed a different vision of the profession, something which Fabien also shared. While completing our respective studies, we had always discussed the need to fully explore the legal profession, in other words set up our own business. Following several experiences with renowned legal firms, we wanted to test out our vision of the profession on the market on the strength of three opportunities:

- the complementarity of our different areas of expertise;
-the possibility to develop a real online presence;
-and the development of a new approach to customer service.

Solegal was founded in April 2015, based on the model of the niche legal firm, to use the jargon from the sector. Fabien is in charge of the Business division and offers support to shareholders and directors when it comes to raising funds, growth initiatives and restructuring. As for me, I look after the Tax division, which mainly focuses on companies, directors and entrepreneurs.  

Solegal targets companies and entrepreneurs looking for expertise with high value added, while at the same time limiting their expenditure on legal services. We realise that the market is open to new offers: companies, SMEs in particular, neglect their legal and fiscal strategies. The reason for this is often poor budgetary choices or customer experiences that are ill-suited to the pragmatism of the entrepreneur. So we provide solutions that come at the right price and can be implemented directly.

10 months after the launch, how would you assess this entrepreneurial adventure?

RC: Less than one year after the launch, there are three main types of feedback I would give.

First, it’s essential to be versatile, at least at the beginning. Each entrepreneur most likely has skills that are useful for his project. But entrepreneurship requires you to multitask in order to manage the different aspects of administration, finance, marketing, legal and technical issues, etc. It’s an advantage in terms of the open-mindedness and curiosity it requires, but at the same time a disadvantage since the entrepreneur cannot be everywhere at once and will have to take on help or delegate to optimise his time. Having set up a business in a technical area of which I have good knowledge, I obviously saved time in defining and positioning our customer service. What’s more, thanks to our training and technical skills, my associate and I were quickly able to manage all the accounting, legal and fiscal aspects of the business. And in terms of new areas, my awareness of communication and marketing allowed us to optimise those aspects of the launch without relying on third-party service providers. But in those areas, Solegal might need to take on some outside help so that my associate and I can remain concentrated on developing the business.

Then there’s the freedom to organise things as you wish. Although the level of freedom is to my mind relative in entrepreneurship, at least it allows you to tackle your ideas, even if that means experiencing a few failures.

Finally, there’s the infamous “emotional elevator”: the euphoria you might experience when you achieve small or big successes goes hand-in-hand with the small or big disappointments that you have to overcome.

Have you ever benefited from the network of EDHEC graduates?

RC: We were lucky enough to manage the business launch phase and secure our first customer contracts with relative autonomy. So it’s actually during the current development phase that I wanted to inform EDHEC about Solegal.  

What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs?

RC: Take risks – but measured ones. It’s very important to face the uncertainty that an entrepreneurial project involves. It’s easy to imagine the worst, that way you often realise that nothing is irreversible. The second step is to conduct a reverse launch schedule. Its length will depend on your current situation. A student won’t have the same reverse schedule as a senior manager, whose financial and personal status necessarily implies less flexibility if there is a change in circumstances.

What’s next for your company?

RC: Our priority is to promote our business offer to independent legal or accounting firms, who could act as prescribers as part of a mutually beneficial relationship. We would also like to consolidate our relations with overseas partners. Certain foreign firms are beginning to express an interest in our backgrounds and our positioning on price.

At the same time as developing the firm in traditional ways, we are thinking about a selection of standardised services which it would be most suitable to promote online. If this comes to pass, we might do it via a dedicated website so as not to project a confusing image of Solegal. Solegal is innovative when it comes to customer relations but has value-added positioning on technical expertise. So it is perfectly feasible for us to develop a more standardised and targeted offer via a “branch” that is distinct from our core business.

What are your expectations from the community of EDHEC graduates (fundraising, recruitment, partnerships, advice, etc.)?

RC: I would invite all EDHEC graduates, entrepreneurs, investors or in-house representatives to test the legal and fiscal services of www.solegal.fr. I would also be delighted to talk to anyone interested in innovation in the field of law more generally, or in legal and fiscal expertise for entrepreneurs and companies in particular. I would be very happy to discuss these issues, on which Solegal positions itself with a difference.

Finally, the EDHEC community can already offer its support to Solegal, which is among the final nominees for the 2016 Prix de l’Innovation, for which voting will be open to the public until 10 March 2016. All it takes is a few clicks and a few minutes of your time:

Contact
>  www.solegal.fr
> Solegal on Facebook
> Solegal on Twitter
> Solegal on LinkedIn
> rcabrita@solegal.fr / LinkedIn profile