Min-Kyu Jung

Since its launch, the company has raised over US$22 million and built a client base that includes Canva, Pinterest and Fonterra. Min-Kyu’s achievements also earned him a place on the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.

As a young law student at the University of Auckland, Min-Kyu Jung had mapped out a legal career that would take him to the UK – not into the world of Silicon Valley start-ups. But life had other ideas.

“I used to have a life plan that included being a lawyer in New Zealand for a few years and then practising at a large law firm in London. Things have turned out very differently!” he says.

Now based in San Francisco, Min-Kyu is CEO and co-founder of Ivo, a legal tech company using AI to help businesses negotiate and review contracts up to 80 percent more efficiently than traditional methods. The idea for Ivo came while Min-Kyu was working as a corporate lawyer at Bell Gully in Auckland. Frustrated by the endless hours spent drafting contracts, he began imagining a smarter, faster solution – and set out to build it.

Together with Jacob Duligall, a former senior software engineer at Xero, Min-Kyu founded Ivo in 2021 and moved to the US in 2023. Since leaving law for the tech world, he hasn’t looked back.

“I’ve had the absolute time of my life building Ivo. As a fresh grad, I remember feeling very directionless; I don’t take for granted that I have the privilege to do what feels like my life’s work.”

A defining moment came when Ivo’s first investor, Daniel Gross, came on board.

“He not only gave Ivo its initial capital, but helped convince me to move to San Francisco and, whether intentionally or not, massively expanded the scope of my ambitions,” says Min-Kyu.

Another pivotal moment came with the reaction to an early prototype.

“Lawyers either loved it to the degree that they asked if they could invest in the company, or they seemed to have a visceral hatred of, or aversion to, it. This was a much better signal than the lukewarm positive feedback that other prototypes had elicited in the past.”

Still, Min-Kyu says a good idea on its own isn’t enough. His biggest lesson so far: “Slow start-ups don’t win.”

“Most companies don’t want to buy from unproven start-ups, so the only way to win their business is by going above and beyond,” he says. “The overall speed of the entire company needs to be much faster than what feels normal or comfortable.”

Now entrenched in the heart of the tech world, Min-Kyu has embraced the culture and allowed himself to think big.

“My ambition is for Ivo to be one of the most important companies in the world,” he says. “Although it’s far too early to declare victory – we still have a long way to go.”

So far, however, Ivo is well on track. As well as raising US$22 million in funding, the company now serves more than 150 clients, including Eventbrite, Canva, Fonterra, Pinterest and several Fortune 500 companies. In 2023, Min-Kyu was also named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.

And while his life today is a far cry from the law rooms of Auckland, he remains grateful for both his former career and his years at university.

“My time at the University of Auckland helped me develop an interest and appreciation for law, which led to me entering the legal profession. It’s safe to say that without this experience, Ivo wouldn’t exist today.”