Danae Shell is a tech innovator who is transforming legal access through the Valla platform. Her dedication to making a difference was recently honoured with a prestigious Purple Plaque from Innovate UK that recognises enterprising women in STEM.
“Fairness is an important pillar of society and one I’m interested in supporting,” Danae comments. “I want to use technology for good by creating tools that are beneficial to society.”
Through Valla, her AI-enabled legal platform, she is empowering people to take action. “In the World Justice Project’s ‘Rule of Law Index’ the UK scores highly overall, but for the accessibility and affordability of its civil justice it is below the global average,” Danae explains. “Across the country there is significant non-compliance with employment laws, but millions of workers can’t afford the legal fees to address what they are experiencing. Valla changes that; we put powerful tools directly into their hands so they can fight unfairness.”
To put this in context, the Resolution Foundation* found that every year there are 12.4 million workplace violations in the UK, ranging from discrimination to unpaid holiday entitlement. “But at the same time legal services are becoming less and less affordable,” comments Danae. “To use a law firm for a discrimination issue at work would be a minimum £5,000 bill, rising into tens of thousands for complex cases.”
Danae explains that while Valla has started with employment law, the intention is to expand into other areas of civil disputes, such as tenancies and small claims. “Fundamentally, what we’re trying to do is create fairness where fairness hasn’t existed for a long time,” she comments. “If you don’t know about your rights, you don’t know how to enforce them. That’s really the goal – for millions of people to use our platform and products, and by doing so, pursue accountability.” She is clearly ambitious to achieve real societal impact at scale: “I want to make a difference for people who have lost hope that fairness exists,” she says.
*Enforce for good: effectively enforcing labour market rights in the 2020s and beyond (25 April 2023) – a report by The Resolution Foundation, an independent think-tank
Inspiration from direct experience
Inspiration for action often comes from direct experience. As senior women in the tech industry, Danae, and her original co-founder, Kate Ho, both witnessed issues at work that alarmed them.
“I consistently saw the same pattern when workplace issues arose – talented professionals left because accessing legal support was complex and expensive,” Danae explains.
“Kate and I knew there were ways to make things easier by harnessing tech. The basic hypothesis of Valla was ‘surely we can do something that will make legal access easier?’. So, we created Valla.” Described as ‘IKEA for law’ it provides the means to build a legal case with all the required tools and instructions. “It supports individuals to handle their cases at a fraction of traditional costs,” Danae comments.
Forging an entrepreneurial career at Edinburgh Napier
Originally from Tennessee, Danae grew up in the Appalachian Mountains. She taught herself to code on a garage-sale Apple IIe computer, and her journey from self-taught programmer to legal tech innovator saw her coming to Edinburgh Napier rather unexpectedly.
“I wanted to study abroad but none of the programmes available for my bachelor’s degree looked interesting. I liked the idea of coming to Edinburgh and chanced upon the International Teledemocracy Centre at Edinburgh Napier. I loved the idea of using tech to improve democracy, so I emailed and asked if I could intern with them,” Danae explains. Professor Ann Macintosh who led the initiative said ‘yes’.
She hugely enjoyed working in the area of electronic government at the Centre: “I served a dual role of designing and developing software for e-government, as well as researching its impact,” she explains. It led to her staying on to undertake a masters at the University in Multimedia and Interactive Systems, and while studying she set up a software development company on the side with friends from the course.
“We called it Bar12 Media after the Student Union bar where we hatched the idea!” Danae explains. “I learned a lot, the hard way, as we took on projects. It was my first real foray in entrepreneurship, which I began to realise was really just a case of saying ‘why not?’ and then going for it!”.
Exploration – the key driver
From then on Danae started creating new businesses. Next up was a lingerie weblog called Knickers. “This became a big deal in online blogging in the fashion industry,” Danae comments. “In the early days of the web this kind of ‘pro blog’ was very new and unexplored. I decided to focus on lingerie because it’s a surprisingly interesting topic at the intersection of fashion, selfconfidence, and design.”
What was really driving her though was a desire to make connections and converse with people, to learn about their problems and then try to find solutions. “I had this realisation that all I had to do was learn to code in order to reach people and help them. It was hugely exciting,” she explains.
She forged a career and honed her “professional service disruption” skills through roles at global risk consultancy company Barrie & Hibbert and then at FreeAgent, where she progressed to Head of Awareness.
Danae presenting at the Turing Festival Founder and Investor Summit
A recognised disruptive innovator
In 2022 Danae was named a Disruptive Innovator by AccelerateHer, a key organisation within Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. It recognised the impact of Danae, and Valla, which since its launch has helped more than 13,000 people. The company now employs 11 people and over 20 specialist legal coaches, while its sales have risen tenfold. Most recently, £2m in seed funding was raised to expand its reach, and Danae received an Innovate UK award worth £75,000 for further AI development.
As a female entrepreneur in a tech-bro world, Danae feels strongly about supporting young women to succeed. “I want them to know that innovation and entrepreneurship aren’t reserved for a certain type of person. They’re for anyone with curiosity, determination, and a desire to solve problems,” she says. “You don’t have to wait for anyone to give you permission. You can just do it.”
She cautions, however, that the road won’t be easy. “We’ve been through it all. The investment market collapsed while we were fundraising, my co-founder needed to exit the company, but then we were rescued by an angel investor,” she explains. “It teaches you what you’re capable of and how to stay focused on the really important stuff. Without that tough period, we might not have adopted GenAI so quickly in 2023, and that one decision completely transformed the business.”
Resilience and a forward-thinking approach is key to Danae’s difference making, underpinned by a desire to always use her powers for good. Now, she’s talking to some of the biggest investors in the world about the next stage of Valla. “Legal advice is a global problem and global market opportunity,” she comments, “it’s the perfect combination to build something with huge scale and genuine societal impact.”