We have an intentionally high conviction, low-volume approach.

We build small cohorts of companies throughout the year, to ensure we can dedicate enough time and resource to properly support your product development and achieve your objectives.

What’s involved

Our programmes are intense, and we make no secrets about this!

Joining one of our programmes means you’ll spend 12 weeks on site in Mishcon’s offices, learning as much as you possibly can about the problem space to inform product strategy. Our lawyers then act as initial users of the product and provide regular feedback enabling rapid prototyping and ongoing product development against your objectives.

12 weeks

12 weeks

Product objectives

Product objectives

Access to people

Access to people

Access to data

Access to data

Product development

Product development

Commercial
relationship / investment

Commercial
relationship / investment

About us

Open to early stage companies globally.

We’re based in London, but our programmes are open to pre-seed / seed stage companies from all around the world. We are often the first enterprise customer, so you’ll be a good fit for us if you’ve raised a small amount of money, have a working prototype or product and are looking to scale.

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

You don’t have to move, but we do want all our companies in our offices for the majority of the programme. This is Entirely to help you get the most value.

Unfortunately, due to the large volume of applications we can’t provide feedback on application results.

We tend not to focus on definitions. We are interested in any company that has a touch points with the Law / Law firms. In the past we have worked with Cyber, FinTech, PropTech, RegTech and InsurTech too!

Our flagship Improve programme runs for 12 weeks. More details about the programme can be found here (https://lab.mdr.london/programmes/improve/)

No. But we can provide advice and guidance to help make the process as easy as possible.

There is a five step process after you have submitted your application:Application screening First round interviews Second round interviews (with relevant people from across the business) Selection Offer & Onboarding

Once you have graduated from the programme you will become MDR Lab Alumnus, which means you can continue to access or firm and our people and we will continue to support you where needed. We aim to hold events throughout the year for Alumni, we may also call upon you to join us at events or workshops we hold for other purposes. We see this as a great way for us to keep connected with you.

“We’ve crammed about 2 years of product development into 10 weeks” Denis Anscomb, IndexStartups gain a lot of condensed experience through targeted mentoring and exposure to experts around the firm and beyond. We like to work with a few select startups in a mutually beneficial way. General benefits include:Support developing and building your company Piloting your product with Mishcon de Reya Receive mentoring from legal experts/ users at Mishcon de Reya through our office hours Gain insights from subject matter experts through a top-quality education programme Access funding from Mishcon de Reya

The MDR Lab Improve programme runs twice a year. The best way to determine when the programme is open for application is to check the programme page, there will be an ‘apply now’ button available for applications or details of when the application window is open and closed. Otherwise, check out our social media channels for more information.

Investment terms are agreed and finalised before joining our improve programme, a period after the programme will be set where we are able to invest should we chose to.

You do.

Unlike other programmes, there is no immediate equity requirement tied to the programme. We negotiate an option to invest in your business. Each company will receive a bespoke investment offer before joining the programme. The terms of this offer will be made using a mutually agreed valuation of your business and must be agreed to before you can start the programme.

We can provide sponsorship for visas. These are done on a case by case basis.