Peter Ozolin
Peter Ozolin

Manzama started with a simple mission: Help attorneys deal with information overload.

And now the Bend, Oregon startup — founded four years ago by entrepreneurs Peter Ozolin, Mark Hinkle and Randall Smith — is looking to build on that initial concept after scoring $1.3 million in series A funding. The 32-person company plans to use some of the new funds to expand its so-called “listening platform” into other professional services such as accounting and financial services.

Ozolin admits that there’s a lot of “noise out there” when it comes to information flow — making it harder for professionals to stay on top of the news that’s most relevant to their jobs.

“We give them a framework so they can more easily track what’s happening with their clients or industries of interest,” he said. “The best way I describe Manzama is that it is like The Wall Street Journal, (but) imagine when you open it up that every article applies to you.”

That means lawyers who work specifically in practices such as mergers & acquisitions, patents or litigation could get tailored content designed just for them. You can think about it as personalized Google alerts on steroids.

“The challenge is how do I find content that is relevant to me without going through the process of creating a bunch of elaborate searches and queries,” he said. “We all know that time is money and that not many professionals are willing to undertake that sort of an effort.”

Ozolin says they use different triggers to find information, personalizing the information for each individual and his or her interests. So, for example, a corporate lawyer for drug maker Pfizer could get specialized content set up for them.

manzama-screen44Several large law firms have deployed Manzama’s dashboard, including Perkins Coie, Cooley, Stoel Rives and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Half of the top 10 law firms in the U.S. are currently using the product, which is sold as an annual subscription. “We’ve really captured a good percent of the market,” said Ozolin, adding that the company has posted 14 straight quarters of revenue growth and 100 percent revenue growth year-over-year

In fact, Ozolin said the company would not have needed to raise additional capital if it planned to stick in the legal vertical. However, with the plan to move into new professional verticals — those that are “close cousins” to legal — Ozolin set out on the financing trail.

“We felt like we needed capital to run more quickly than just out of cash flows and profits, which we’ve been able to do ever since we took on funding three-and-half years ago. We have not raised money since then,” he said.

Ozolin has some experience in the legal arena. After graduating from Willamette University’s Joint MBA/JD Program, he founded Legal Anywhere, which sold extranet services to large law firms. That company sold to Niku Corp. for $27 million in 2000.

Investors in Manzama’s latest round of funding include Gold Bench Capital, Seven Peaks and Cascade Angels.

“The company has generated a solid revenue stream by capturing and owning the legal market, and we are excited to see where they take it next,” said Dino Vendetti, managing partner at Seven Peaks Ventures. “We believe the Manzama investment sets the tone for regional companies to raise a significant amount of capital from investors and deliver a product and service with global reach.”

In fact, Ozolin said that the company’s location in Bend — about three hours southwest of Portland — is huge benefit. It plans to reach about 50 employees worldwide in the next 12 months.

“Having a commitment from employees when your company is growing even if it experiences some hiccups, there aren’t 10 jobs down the street that are similar, so you are not at easily distracted,” he said. “We have a very high retention rate, and that helps in the culture. I think that was the unanticipated thing. Your team feels like they can take on any challenge because you have already done it as a team together. You have gotten through the startup phase, which in some ways is a really big benefit.”

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