Get Closer crowdfunds legal fees to help activists take government to court

Two weeks ago, a photo that was posted on Facebook went viral. The post was of a hypothetical letter to the government describing a future in which citizens would be able to pool their resources in order to hire lawyers to represent them in court. The response to the photo was overwhelming: with over 2,300 likes in less than two weeks, it made the rounds on social media and eventually reached the three founders of Get Closer, a startup that describes themselves as an “actionable Change.org.”

A pivot towards crowdfunding for lawyer services

When the post went viral, Get Closer was working on officially launching its own pivot into becoming a crowdfunding website for lawyer fees. Founded in 2014 by Radhakrishnan Ram Manohar, Sidharth Vijayan, and Praveen Paul, the startup was originally created to help companies connect with relevant NGOs in order to comply with a newly introduced Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) act. With the decision to pivot, they had moved into an incubator at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore.

“Due to regulatory issues, we decided to pivot our business model but also to try and remain within this conjunction of funding and public issues,” explains Radhakrishnan. “That’s always been our thing: finding a way for those that are working on big things to connect with the right people. Our conclusion with Indian bureaucracy was that a lack of funding was creating a growing disconnect between lawyers and individuals.”

The social media response

Because the small team, including Stalvart John, Abraham Varghese and Krishna Kumar, had already established a network of lawyers that were willing to work with the platform, the assumption was that most of the difficulty would lie in getting individuals to post cases and contribute funds. Thanks to the popularity of the post, however, this task became much easier.

“It was a strange coincidence that acted as a boost of confidence for us,” says Radhakrishnan. “It was a great way to gain traction. Each follower of the photo was asked to write ‘yes’ if they were interested in using a similar platform. The amount of positive feedback affirmed our belief that every person is an activist inside – there just aren’t enough venues for them to reach out.”

The first iteration of Get Closer’s website allows interested users to sign up for a mailing list. “We already have over 6,000 people showing interest in our website,” he adds. “It’s exciting.” With the help of the confidence that the Facebook post had granted them, Get Closer plans to officially launch its services by January.

Technology can disrupt and improve the judicial system

Other services have attempted to use technology to disrupt the judicial industry. A prime example is US-based Rocket Lawyer, a website that provides individuals and SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) with online legal services and consultation. It has received over US$46 million in four rounds of funding from investors like Google Ventures and August Capital.

In India, however, the judicial system has seen little to no change in the past 200 years. It continues to be plagued by issues like corruption, a lack of transparency, and years of pending backlog. Most importantly, those without money rarely get an opportunity to be represented in court. “It’s not even that lawyers don’t want to fight social causes,” explains Radhakrishnan. “The issue is that they won’t get proper remuneration. We’re trying to change that entirely.”

While the platform presents a practical solution to a complex problem, there are several issues that come with the territory of working with the judiciary system. If an issue seems biased towards an unfair cause, for example, will Get Closer still allow it to raise funds on their website?