This month, Founder and CEO of My Life Capsule, Pam Moorhouse talks to ALTA Intern, Farsai Powthong, about how she came from flying planes at 15 to founding several companies, including an award-winning legaltech and fintech solution that embodies privacy by design for our most sensitive data. 

Q1 Tell us a bit about your background.

I began in a very different space. I was flying aeroplanes when I was 15 and worked in the Aviation industry for nearly a decade. I moved to crisis risk management in aviation, which led to roles in high-risk sectors, including mining, oil and gas, focusing on emergency and crisis risk management. So initially nothing to do with legaltech.

Working in crisis management sparked the desire to help people be better prepared and more proactive when thinking about business and life events. I also have a Masters Degree in Technology which prompted the move into entrepreneurship with both tech and non-tech startups.

Q2 Do you remember the moment your journey with legal technology began? When was it, and what did you think about the Australian market at the time?

At the inception of My Life Capsule in 2020, we knew it had to be both a legaltech and fintech solution as these are two industries that help clients, individuals and families to prepare for and respond to some of life’s most significant events such as divorce, end of life planning, purchasing a property and dealing with family and business disputes.

The Australian market is relatively small, making it a perfect launch pad for technology innovation. It presents an opportunity to get to market quicker, to test and trial different things to find a good market fit.

It was evident to me, both as a consumer and as a business owner, that the Australian personal legal services sector wasn’t proactive in fostering the consumer data rights of their clients and protecting clients’ data. For example, many lawyers and other service providers still share critical and sensitive information with their clients and third parties via email. This is not a safe practice to protect client data as emails can be intercepted at any point, and that personal information can be compromised.

There are more bad actors, data breaches and hackings that occur every day, and we can all think of very public and significant incidents that have recently happened to large companies. As service providers, we all have a duty of care to our clients. The most viable option for most businesses, and indeed for small and medium-sized enterprises, is to outsource that data protection to a specialist digital security agency or to a provider like My Life Capsule, which already encompasses award-winning state-of-the-art digital security and embodies privacy-by-design for client engagement.

Q3 Describe a typical day in your life.

I have two children, 11 and 14, so my mornings are focused on getting them off to school. At 9 am, I usually meet with my co-founder and CTO, Ryan Henderson, to get an update on the progress of our development team. By 10 am, I check in with customer enquiries and responses and review our platform’s sales and usage metrics. Twice a week at 11 am, I do a gym class with my husband, who is also the CFO of My Life Capsule. We use this precious time to catch up personally and professionally while fitting in some exercise. I usually work on development and sales priorities in the afternoon and meet with the team. Later in the evening is when I can catch up on critical tasks, and I always finish the day by preparing for the next and a to-do list of priorities for the business. My days are always a juggle between priorities; like most founders who are also parents, I work long hours but build in flexibility to fit it all in.

Q4 Entrepreneurship can be rewarding and challenging in equal measure. From your time building My Life Capsule with your team, what do you believe are the important skills for a legaltech founder’s success?

I think having a strategic vision and the ability to multitask are crucial to success in any area of innovation. As a founder, we wear a lot of different hats, so we need the ability to dive deep into a specific area while maintaining that strategy vision and sharing that vision with the team.

We also need to be willing to put our egos aside and make the decision every day to put ourselves into situations that make us a little bit vulnerable. So, whether it is public speaking, pitching for sales or funding, or asking our board or an adviser for help, as founders we need to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

Q5 Founding, a legaltech company, is full of uncertainties and we can then throw COVID into the mix. If you could go back in time to give yourself one piece of advice at a time of uncertainty what would you say to your younger self?

I’ve learnt two things through adversity in my life.

Firstly, everything in life is transient, and I would tell my younger self; this too shall pass and you will get through it!

Secondly, I’ve learnt that I can endure and persevere through so much more than I thought I could, and I think we all can. We always have an opportunity to decide if something really matters to us, and if it does, then grit and perseverance will see us through.

Q6 Australia is a ‘relatively small market when compared to the rest of the world. Where do overseas markets sit on the priority list – and what are your tips/thoughts on growing a business globally out of Australia?

Our consumer apps and client portal are already active in 42 countries, and the UK is one of our strongest growth areas. While our B2B and LegalTech strategy are very much grounded in Australia at this stage, we look to expand our enterprise solutions into New Zealand and the UK in late 2023.

Being a technology business founded in Australia means that global reach is undoubtedly achievable, and more easily so than in many other industries. I think having people on the ground who understand each region is important to ensure we meet the local regulations and legal requirements; and ensuring that your Australian based accounting, legal and strategy advisors are across this is also key.

A lot of relationship building and sales activities can be achieved via video conferencing, but there is nothing like doing business face-to-face so if there is a solid global opportunity we should all make the effort to spend time in that country and foster those relationships on the client’s soil.

Q7 As 2022 starts to draw to a close, what are the priorities that you are focused on and what would you like to achieve in the near future for My Life Capsule?

The launch of our privacy-first client engagement solution is this month, October 2022, and it’s been our absolute focus. We are dedicated to ensuring our core group of launch clients is delighted with the experience our platform provides and that our solution makes their business more efficient, more secure and ultimately more profitable; while also making the lives of their clients easier. Second, to our strong client focus, we want to continue to develop and build our team. Right now, we are a small team of 5 with a fantastic advisory board that helps strategically. We will need to raise funds to fuel our growth, so that will become a key focus for us in 2023.

Q8 Where can we find more about what you are doing and stay up to date with My Life Capsule?

You can head to www.mylifecapsule.com for more information on both our consumer products and enterprise solutions on the website. Reach out to me at pam@mylifecapsule.com for any legaltech enquiries and connect with and follow us on LinkedIn!