Entrepreneur of Year launches partnership
Dayton company’s efforts focus on lawyers, their clients.
A Dayton software and app development firm recently named Dayton’s Entrepreneur of the Year has started a new partnership to improve access to legal services.
Mile Two has partnered with CuroStudio, a Dayton-based technology venture, to focus on lawyers and their clients.
Chad Burton is an attorney and founder of CuroStudio and CuroLegal, the Dayton-based law technology consulting firm Burton created in 2013. He said the “studio” operates virtually, although it can rely on Mile Two’s staff and space at 444 E. Second St, the heart of Dayton’s new downtown “Innovation District.”
The idea is to modernize legal services to improve access to those services, Burton said. He said more than 80 percent of Americans who need legal services simply aren’t getting them.
His solutions include iden- tifying technology that helps legal service providers offer more efficient, lower-cost services and helping custom- ers find the right providers.
O ne tech solution is an online one-way “legal checkup,” Burton said, a way to answer questions online to determine prob- lems and point the way to solutions for users
A user answers questions and at the end, a possible solution is indicated. One version of that idea specif- ically for veterans already exists, Burton said.
But the company’s plans are bigger.
“What we’re looking at specifically from the studio perspective is broader than that,” he said. “We’re look- ing to build solutions that have a structural impact.”
Mile Two has proved to be a natural partner for CuroLegal, Burton said. “It is clear that they’re in line with our vision and operate very sim- ilarly.”
The studio is the next step, moving from a work-for-hire model for clients to a more focused research-and-development approach, he said.
For its part, Mile Two, based in Dayton’s Webster Station area, contin- ues to launch an array of products. The company will have a place in the Dayton Legal Hackathon, a chance for software developers to tackle real problems in just 48 hours.
The Dayton Legal Hack- athon will be Feb. 23 to 25. The local event will join similar events in more than 25 cities in what is being billed as the first “global legal hackathon.”
The idea is to quickly — very quickly, in 48 hours or less — develop software solutions for lawyers and law firms.
“I think that helps us stand out compared to most companies,” Jeff Graley, one of Mile Two’s founders, said in a recent interview. “It’s that diversity, where we’re applying the talent that we have.”
“It started a couple of years ago as just the two of us, wondering where is this going to go,” Graley said, referring to partner Jorge Sanchez. “And then, to be recognized at that event (the coalition’s annual meeting) with 800 people there ... that’s a really good feeling.”
While Mile Two is known for creating the “VYE” software with Dayton’s Ascend Innovations, the software firm hasn’t focused on one industry or product.
VYE tracks a user’s eye movement, lending clues as to whether brain injuries may be an issue.
Mile Two’s work also touches defense, law and health care.
“I think a lot of it is the diversity,” Graley said. “That diversity has led to us spinning out a health care platform to help consultants support the health care industry.”
That health care platform will be unveiled in the spring, he expects.