Office hours that start with the founder’s questions
If you hold free office hours for an accelerator, incubator or university program, every slot is a first call you don’t bill. Put your Tellbrief link in the sign-up. Each founder answers plain questions first, you check their names, and the slot starts with what they need to ask.
Why it fits office hours
- Slots are short. Twenty minutes goes fast when the first ten are background. With the brief, you start with the issues to raise, what to ask and which documents settle each one.
- Names before details. A founder who books time to ask about their own matter may be a prospective client, and what they tell you can limit who else you can represent.1 Office hours put you in front of several companies from the same program, and two of them may be in the same market. You see the names first and clear them before any detail opens. Decline, and the brief is deleted unread.
- You see what office hours bring in. After each slot, two questions on the brief record what it saved and whether the founder hired you. At day 45, the pilot report shows what office hours are worth to you, in numbers you can take to your partners.
How to set it up
- Get your link. We set it up with you, and your dashboard has the wording with your link in it, ready to copy.
- Put it where founders sign up. Ask the program to add one line to the office-hours sign-up, or add it to your own confirmation.
- Check names as they arrive. Clear them on your dashboard and the brief opens. Before the slot, read it or print the one-page call sheet.
Booking office hours with me? Before your slot, please answer some questions about your business here: your Tellbrief link. It takes 10 to 15 minutes, and at the end you’ll give the names involved so I can check for conflicts before we talk. Nothing reaches me until you send it.
Change the wording so it sounds like you. If the program runs the sign-up, your dashboard also has a short note asking the person who runs it to add your line, with your link in it. The setup guide shows where the line goes in Calendly, Acuity and the rest.
What it costs
Office hours mean many free first calls, which is when the monthly limit matters: $40 a brief, never more than $99 a month per lawyer. Ten founders in a month cost you $99. It’s free for the first 60 days, and nothing is billed until three briefs have reached you.
Founders who come without your link
A program can also point every founder to a free brief at tellbrief.com/start, to bring to whichever lawyer they see. That copy holds the founder’s answers, their questions and the records to bring. The issues to raise, the call sheet and the names-first check come with your own link.
If a program you work with would like that, send them the page for programs.
Try it at your next office hours
Free for 60 days, then $40 a brief, never more than $99 a month per lawyer. You can try it alone, without asking anyone at your firm.
Start a free pilot See the demo Back to Tellbrief for lawyers
Your firm stays responsible for conflict checks and for deciding whether to take a matter. Please don’t send client information in your inquiry.
1. Rule 1.18, on duties to prospective clients: as Minnesota adopted it (opens in a new tab). Check your state’s version.
General information, not legal advice.