Leverage Your Beginner's Mindset: Using AI to Innovate a Vertical with Jorn Vanysacker, Co-Founder and CEO, and Julien Steel, Head of Product, Henchmen

In this episode of AI Unveiled, I speak with Jorn Vanysacker and Julien Steel at Henchman, a legal contract drafting and negotiating platform powered by AI.  Jorn learned some valuable lessons from his first startup. The product was too broad, needed customization, and they didn’t invest in mining insights from data. This time around, he and his co-founders wanted to build something that was truly plug-and-play and solve a narrow problem for end users. With this lens, they decided to build Henchman.  None of the founders had any legal experience and Jorn believes this beginner’s mindset has been a significant advantage in an industry ripe for disruption. It was a forcing function to obsess over speaking to and learning from customers.  Their product is a Word plug-in—a purposefully narrow UX for the end user. As lawyers draft complex contracts, Henchman provides edits and suggestions based on precedents—what someone in the firm has written in the past. With over 150 customers already, it’s working, and their focus is to make this narrow product better—more integrations with backend document management systems and better AI and insights.  Julien then speaks about the specific features and their federated approach to AI. One big change he sees in building AI-first products is the amount of time his team spends monitoring the output, customer feedback, and impact. It’s around 50% compared to 20% in his prior roles. I hope you enjoy this episode. ----- Timestamps: * 8:55 - What the law firm of tomorrow looks like * 12:50 - The value prop of a niche knowledge base * 17:32 - The AI powering legal tech  * 24:29 - Your beginner’s mindset is the key to customer obsession At N47, we partner with founders boldly building products that power the world. Learn more at ⁠N47.com⁠