From the yoga loft into the world: meet the founders of notarity

From left to right: Alexander Gugler, Jakobus Schuster, Sebastian Wodniansky and Max Pointinger. © Photo: Alexander Schindler

At the beginning of the year, we launched the first user-friendly platform for digital notarial deeds (remote online notarisations) for the German-speaking market. Together with the partner notaries on the notarity platform, we are helping the digital notarial deed achieve its breakthrough. But the notarial deed is hopefully only the beginning of a legal tech success story. We have set out to modernise the legal services industry worldwide, and we still have a lot planned. In this article, you will learn more about our vision, our journey so far and the people behind notarity.

The way legal services are provided often does not yet make full use of the potential of digitalisation. notarity started as a project to make better use of digital opportunities in modern legal advice. The founders’ vision is that everyone should be able to access high-quality legal services easily, with transparent costs and regardless of time and place. To make this vision a reality, they are developing digital products that solve real problems and whose time has come.

Building the notarity platform, on which people can work with notaries at any time and from anywhere, is the founders’ first product on the way to realising their vision. In Austria, it has been possible since 2020 to execute almost all notarial deeds digitally. In developing the notarity platform, lean development is a lived practice, not just an empty buzzword. In particular, this means gathering feedback and testing with notaries and their clients early and continuously. This is the only way we can make sure we develop a product that meets the needs of both sides. Our ambition is that completing a digital notarial deed should be no harder than ordering a pizza. In future, the platform will gain many useful features and open up to further areas of application – even beyond the notarial sector.

How it all began

It all started on a white-water kayaking weekend together on the Salza river in the summer of 2020. Frustrated by his own experiences in practice, Jakobus was determined to stop standing by and to play an active part in digitalising the legal services industry. Alexander was all ears. They quickly became convinced that, rather than complaining, they should do something about it themselves.

In the weeks that followed, we pitched a few ideas to each other, and it quickly became clear that the time was ideal for notarity. Just a few weeks later, we moved into our first office: a yoga studio in Vienna’s Neubau district that had been closed because of the second coronavirus lockdown. That is where the first sketches of the platform and the business model were created. Around the turn of the year 2020/21, Max and Sebastian joined us as comrades-in-arms, bringing all the core skills together in the team.

After a detour via a music institute, we are now at home in Vienna’s 9th district. We share our office with our development partner, &amp GmbH (andamp.io). This creative and innovative location gives us ideal conditions to drive forward the further development of the legal services industry.

The notarity founders in profile

The notarity founding team is made up of software developers, lawyers and business economists, so the team brings together all the core skills needed to make its plans a success. We are willing and able to make the legal services market more innovative in the long term. Not diverse enough? We think so too! You can read more about this in upcoming articles.

notarity in a nutshell

notarity, the Viennese legal tech start-up, is making the digital notarial deed a success story together with the partner notaries on its platform. Founded only in the summer of 2021 by software developers, lawyers and business economists, the young company has developed a web platform for digital notarial services that covers the entire process of executing notarial deeds digitally. This means notary appointments can be attended at any time and from anywhere. The vision is to make going to a notary as easy as ordering a pizza. notarity is currently available as a beta version.