By Patricia Baldwin
Lifestyle Writer for The Texas Lawbook
About eighteen months ago, Karl Seelbach was driving to Houston to take depositions. To the proverbial rhythm of the road, the senior associate in Winstead’s Austin office started thinking … wishing he had brought some other depositions to reference … wishing he could access certain exhibits … and finally concluding that the deposition delivery system was broken.
So he decided to fix it.
Fast forward to the ABA TechShow 2013 in April in Chicago. Seelbach is informally networking with fellow attorneys, telling them about the new company he co-founded – eDepo – that officially launched in June. The enterprise offers a deposition media delivery, management and presentation system.
And, like any good moonlighting CEO, he’s learning to speak in sound bites:
“We built the equivalent of Dropbox, YouTube and PowerPoint for depositions.”
“Access your depositions anywhere.”
“Stream your deposition videos instantly.”
“Virtual library … in the Cloud.”
“Get rid of your bankers boxes.”
And while it might seem that Seelbach has created “easy,” the process was not. The 18 months between that drive to Houston and the official launch of eDepo were filled with hard work, a lot of listening and little sleep. Not to mention he continues his role in Winstead’s Commercial Litigation, Construction, and Labor & Employment practice groups.
“We bootstrapped as much as we could,” Seelbach says. He and three contractors-turned-partners self-financed the venture with perhaps more sweat equity than money, although he allows that they might seek a round of venture capital later this year or next.
He’s confident that eDepo has separated itself from competitors.
“Frankly, I am not aware of any other company that has ever combined deposition review with presentation software, and we have a patent pending on our software,” he says. “eDepo is the first company to release an app that brings streaming video depositions to the iPad. eDepo is also the first company to combine deposition review and trial presentation software on the iPad via our ‘TrialDeck’ feature.”
He’s now fluent with his pitch: “Because we stream videos to the iPad and only download clips when you add them to a TrialDeck, the number of depositions you can watch on an iPad is unlimited. Unlike other trial presentation apps, with eDepo, you don’t have to experience the hassle of manually syncing your videos and importing pre-designated clips onto your iPad. eDepo takes the headache out of deposition delivery, storage, retrieval, and review and makes creating video clips and trial presentations as simple as tapping your finger.”
Winstead shareholder Stewart Whitehead, who chairs the Construction Practice Group, has served as one of the beta testers for eDepo. He says he knows nothing about programming, but he knows “fantastic technology” when he uses it.
“I’ve been whispering in Karl’s ears,” Whitehead adds.
And one of Seelbach’s strengths is listening – especially to experts who know their stuff, says Miller Hooks, eDepo partner, chief technology officer and architect of the system. Hooks signed on as software developer and became a partner because of his “trust and faith in the idea.”
Partnerships evolved in similar fashion for Ben Hine and Luke Stamm.
“There is mutual understanding,” Hooks says. “From the first time I met Karl, I knew he had a solid idea.”
The idea also has found a fan in Terry Thornton, director of education for the American Guild of Court Videographers, which certifies videographers in many aspects of legal videography.
“As an educator in the litigation system, I always stress the importance of having access to the proper technology to get the job done,” Thornton says. “eDepo is a one of those tools that connects the service provider with the attorney in a way not previously seen. eDepo will bring back the importance of fundamental services such as deposition reporting and videography.”
Thornton calls eDepo “user friendly.” He says the easy upload of deposition media by service providers means attorneys can have access and control of transcripts, exhibits and videos, after delivery.
A frequent question Seelbach answers involves security.
“We know that attorneys rely on us to secure their deposition content and ensure reliability. And, we take those responsibilities very seriously,” he says. “eDepo uses modern security tools and updates to prevent exploits. Among other things, we use intrusion detection systems to monitor all network activity.”
He adds, “The eDepo system is more secure than traditional file transfer methods such as email. eDepo controls data access and dissemination through secure channels from end-to-end.”
More specifically, Seelbach continues, “Information uploaded to eDepo is protected on eDepo’s end with 512-bit SSL encryption using a 4096-bit RSA key, which exceeds most bank level security. This helps secure the data transferred to eDepo over the Internet. eDepo utilizes firewalls on its servers to protect data from external threats.”
Winstead’s Whitehead contends that there is “no way, on the fly” to sync video before a judge. With eDepo and his iPad, he has everything he needs in the palm of his hand.
Whitehead also notes that Seelbach’s entrepreneurship reflects “the very core” of the Winstead firm. “We’re proud of him.”
As for Seelbach, he continues to listen to his beta testers and others as he makes his rounds of various legal conferences.
In terms of technology, one of the latest “tweaks” is the ability to share deposition clips via hyperlinks. On the business side, the company has implemented a per-case pricing option.
“Our goal is to be the gold standard,” Seelbach says.
He names his wife, Adrienne, and their almost-2-year-old daughter as eDepo’s biggest fans. In fact, his wife’s Central Texas roots prompted the couple’s move to Austin from Houston in late 2008. The state capital’s technology infrastructure and talent became a boon to eDepo’s development.
“Without a doubt, eDepo would not have happened if I had not moved to Austin,” Seelbach concludes.
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