Catching Up With 'Hello Prenup'

Suffolk Law grad's $22M "Shark Tank" startup showcases school's legal innovation focus
Two years after investing in a promising online tool for do-it-yourself prenups, hosts of the blockbuster reality entrepreneurial show Shark Tank came to Suffolk University Law School's campus to showcase the success of its founder, Julia Rodgers, JD’15.
Suffolk Law alumna Julia Rodgers, JD 15, with Shark Tank stars Kevin O’Leary and Nirav Tolia
Suffolk Law alumna Julia Rodgers (second from right), JD '15, and her HelloPrenup co-founder Sarabeth Jaffe (second from left), welcomed Shark Tank stars Kevin O'Leary (far left) and Nirav Tolia (far right) to the Lindsey Chapel (shown) as well as the Law School campus.  

Investors Kevin O’Leary and Nirav Tolia from the ABC series came to Sargent Hall to update viewers on Rodgers and her startup, HelloPrenup, which has rocketed to $3 million in sales annually since debuting on the program. The company is now valued at more than $22 million Rodgers said on the March 1 follow-up episode, watched by millions.

O’Leary and Tolia said they instantly saw potential in Rodgers’s TV pitch for HelloPrenup, an online platform empowering couples to craft affordable prenuptial agreements—turning a traditionally expensive, and anxiety-ridden process into an affordable option for the younger generation.

“This is a company that could go to hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few years,” Tolia said.

Rodgers said she’s hoping for a long, happy marriage with her investors. “With the sharks by our side, the sky is the limit,” she said. “We know that we can take prenups from being a taboo to a marriage to-do.”

Since striking the Shark Tank deal in Season 13, the company has partnered with industry giant Legal Zoom, online notarization platform Proof, and Rodgers’ alma mater Suffolk Law, “the leading legal technology law school in the country,” she said with pride.

“Integrating technology, especially responsible use of AI is so critical in the legal space,” said co-founder Jaffe, a software engineer.

Rodger’s credits the inspiration for HelloPrenup to exposure to legal automation tools in Suffolk Law Professor Gabe Teninbaum’s “Lawyering in an Age of Smart Machines” class.
“This form of automation really struck a nerve with me,” Rodgers said in a 2021 interview when the company was in its early stages. “I started asking, ‘What else could be automated?’”

Over the past two years Suffolk Law’s Legal Innovation & Technology Concentration and Accelerator to Practice Program have also seen dramatic growth and accolades. Bloomberg Law has once again named Suffolk University Law School a “Top Law School Innovator”—one of 12 schools Bloomberg praised for “teaching students lawyering skills that are often overlooked in traditional legal education.” Bloomberg recently named Suffolk Law a top two school in the “career pathing” category, among institutions “going the extra mile to provide students with real-world practical experiences” that better prepare them for bar passage and careers.

Hello Prenup’s Shark Tank success has been exciting to watch and confirmation of Suffolk Law’s bold direction, said Dean Andrew Perlman. “We created our cutting-edge legal innovation curriculum with people like Julia in mind. We wanted to teach the next generation of lawyers the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century and to better address the public’s legal issues. It is wonderful to see those efforts pay off in such a tangible way for one of our graduates,” he said.