Why We Invested in Focus
For decades, trial lawyers have relied on focus groups to understand how a case might actually land with jurors. The problem is that the best insights sit behind five-figure price tags, months of logistics, and an entire consulting industry that makes early feedback inaccessible to all but the largest cases. Jill Harper and Ron Netemeyer lived this reality firsthand. After years of running focus groups inside their own practice, they decided the bottleneck wasn’t legal theory, it was tooling.
Today, we’re excited to back Focus as they turn jury research into software. Jill and Ron are among Missouri’s most accomplished trial attorneys, including securing a $45M verdict, and they’ve spent over a decade pressure-testing cases the hard way. Ben Zalasky, a senior engineer with deep experience building complex, data-heavy systems, completes the founding team. Together, they’re transforming an expensive, slow service into a fast, repeatable workflow lawyers can actually use.
The Opportunity
A massive, resilient litigation market with tens of millions of cases filed annually in the U.S.
Focus groups that routinely cost $20k–$100k per case, limiting usage to only the highest-stakes matters.
A clear path to $100M+ ARR with minimal penetration of existing case volume.
What Focus Actually Builds
A self-service platform for testing legal cases with real, venue-matched evaluators.
Jurisdiction-specific feedback delivered in days, not months.
Live analytics showing sentiment, risk, and damages ranges as responses come in.
Professional, shareable reports designed for mediation, insurers, and settlement discussions.
Jill and Ron didn’t set out to replace juries. They set out to give lawyers a signal early enough to change outcomes. We believe Focus unlocks a new layer of legal decision-making where strategy is informed by real data, not just instinct. We’re proud to welcome Focus into the Redbud ecosystem.
