In 2023, when Tanguy Chau and Michael Ulin — co-founders of Paxton — joined one of the first cohorts of Unusual Academy, they were working on a regulatory compliance solution for big banks. They had developed an early prototype but were facing unexpectedly long sales cycles and a growing sense that something wasn’t quite right.
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As co-founder Michael Ulin puts it, “Our biggest challenge was a lack of focus—chasing longer sales cycle deals, trying to be everything to everyone.”

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Before they applied to Unusual Academy, Tanguy and Michael had come across the Unusual Field Guide, which resonated deeply with them. Michael recalls that the Field Guide, “felt like it was written specifically for founders at our stage. It delivered real value while speaking directly to a narrow but highly relevant audience: early-stage B2B SaaS founders.”

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So, when they had the chance to apply to Unusual Academy, they jumped at the opportunity—and were accepted!

Discovering the right “who,” not the “what”

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At first, Tanguy and Michael believed that large multi-million dollar bank contracts would provide a stable foundation for their business. They chose this market because of its size and the vast amounts of complex, unstructured text that required analysis. However, the company faced long sales cycles when selling to banks, which was not ideal for a startup. Constant iteration, rapid feedback, and a willingness to adapt are essential for early-stage startups

Unusual Academy became the catalyst for Paxton’s transformation. It didn’t take long for the program to help Michael and Tanguy realize that their initial target market was not the right fit.

Michael remembers his first “a-ha” moment when John Vrionis asked: “What does your startup do that your customers are desperate for?” The question was simple yet powerful. 

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With this question in mind, Paxton started putting their AI solution in front of lawyers who were facing similar problems and were willing to adopt their solution very quickly. This experience helped them understand that smaller and solo legal firms were a better target market. The legal tech market is 80% SMB and solo legal firms. Their needs are very different from those of corporate legal departments, with smaller firms struggling with day-to-day workflows, operations, and efficiency. 

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But this discovery of their “desperate customer” was just the beginning.

Committing to customer discovery

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“Unusual Academy helped us realize that startups only succeed when they solve an urgent, painful problem—desperate customers buy from startups, and finding that desperation is key. That mindset shift helped us clarify what we were doing and why it mattered,” says Michael.

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The founders learned that they had to reach out to a large number of people through LinkedIn campaigns, bar associations, and lawyer meetings to get enough conversations and feedback. A key aspect of the work in Unusual Academy involves reaching out to hundreds of potential customers to better understand their pain points.

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Tanguy and Michael repeatedly heard from lawyers in small firms that they didn't have enough hours in the day and struggled to hire the right people. These lawyers were looking for a tool that could give them an extra point of leverage. Law firms had a "clear burning pain point" of needing more efficiency without adding to their payroll.  The team honed in on a common pain point: lawyers hated doing legal research!

Another key lesson for Tanguy and Michael from Unusual Academy was that customer discovery was not about pitching their solution to potential customers. Instead, customer discovery is about listening to customers and understanding their problems.

Pivoting Paxton’s GTM strategy

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Paxton decided to offer its product for free to solo law firms and single GP law firms as a way of getting feedback. Pivoting to a product-led growth model and targeting smaller legal firms led to a faster sales cycle. Paxton did this while keeping the product the same, which demonstrated the importance of identifying the right buyer.

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This pivot allowed them to gather insights on the necessary data sources, features, and functionality, such as citation maps, and the need to connect client documents to the platform. 

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Tanguy and MIchael discovered that in the smaller end of the legal market, the user and the buyer are often the same person. Smaller legal practitioners didn’t face the same disincentives for efficiency as larger legal practices, where billable hours are the focus. These lawyers were most interested in being able to better serve existing clients, do more business development, and gain more time in the day.

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By the end of their time in Unusual Academy, Paxton had shifted from targeting banks to a product-led growth strategy focused on individual legal practitioners who could adopt and pay for the product quickly.

Key lessons for Paxton from Unusual Academy

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• Listen more than you pitch. 
• Identify a desperate buyer in a big market, then narrow your initial focus within that market.
• Get crystal clear on your ICP.
• Finding product-market fit isn’t just about iterating on the what—it’s also about iterating on the who.

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Paxton recently raised a $22 million Series A round. Read all about our follow on investment in the company. ‍You can also listen to our conversation with the founders about Paxton's journey.

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