Top Techie Basit Mustafa Streamlines the Legal Process

Voltaire software makes legal research easy and accessible

Gigi Sukin //March 29, 2019//

Top Techie Basit Mustafa Streamlines the Legal Process

Voltaire software makes legal research easy and accessible

Gigi Sukin //March 29, 2019//

BASIT MUSTAFA

FOUNDER + CEO | VOLTAIRE

INSPIRATION 

Basit Mustafa is a former IBM executive, a sponsored ultra-runner and an ice climber with a “concrete allergy,” so naturally he moved to Telluride five years ago and started a business. After serving as a board member for the Colorado ACLU, he began asking himself how he could use software to make the life of a litigator a little better. 

“We know there are reams of public data out there,” Mustafa says. “Our digital footprints are mapped and traced and automated. So how can we bring that information together in real-time in a report that’s condensed and concise, so attorneys can sift through it?” 

He put these musings to use in 2014 and founded Voltaire, launching the product the following year. It helps legal professionals perform complex jury and case research with actionable information delivered into the courtroom on-demand with a mobile app. 

“I’ve written a lot of code,” Mustafa says, adding that he started tinkering when he was 4. “My father was a wonderful man, and a slave driver. I enjoyed computers, and he really fostered that. He said he would support it and he did, and I learned to code.” 

For Voltaire, Mustafa wrote “every single line of code for V1.” 

“It saves attorneys and trial teams a lot of time and effort,” Mustafa says. 

INSIGHTS 

A major concern within the legal field is that technology will automate away the profession, “that the world is just going to be LegalZoom and that’s it,” Mustafa says. “But we’re really using technology to augment attorney’s jobs.” 

INTENTIONS 

To date, Mustafa has raised just more than $1 million and says his business is “nicely in the black” and looking to grow, aiming for a Series A funding round in 2019. 

Also, this year, Voltaire will release its new product, Air Council, shooting for the end of the first quarter.