“Legalese” is the complex language lawyers use, making even the simplest agreements feel overwhelming.
Lieke Beelen set out to change that. With her startup, Visual Contracts, she aims to make legal documents more accessible through visual design, breaking down barriers to justice.
In episode 68, Lieke is my guest to talk about
⚖️ Building the “Canva for Contracts”
👩🏻💻 The importance of finding the right people to help you
😢 Dealing with the rejection and failure that is part of a startup founder’s life
Plus, she shares why she decided to take a break from her startup and the lessons she learned along the way.
Lieke Beelen on Making Legalese Easy to Understand with Visual Contracts | Ep. 68 – Women Disrupting Tech
What we cover in this episode
- What we cover in this episode
- The Magic you can expect in this episode 🪄
- Free ways to support the Women Disrupting Tech
- What makes this episode magical🌟?
- About Lieke Beelen and Visual Contracts
- Let me know what you think!
- What’s coming up?
- More episodes like this?
The Magic you can expect in this episode 🪄
So far, I’ve interviewed women who are building a career, a product or a company. But what happens if you need to take a break? That is what this episode is about.
In episode 68 of Women Disrupting Tech, I sit down with Lieke Beelen. Until recently, she was working on her big vision: simplifying legal contracts to make them more accessible and understandable. Think of it as the “Canva for Contracts.”
But trying to innovate in such a conservative industry isn’t easy, especially when investors don’t quite get what “design” can do in a legal tech context.
Lieke also opens up about the challenges of being a neuro-divergent founder, how she struggled to gain traction and the mental toll it all took.
In the end, her story isn’t over. It is just on pause. Waiting for new energy to make legalese easy to read with Visual Contracts.
Free ways to support the Women Disrupting Tech
When you’re ready to support my guests in making this podcast obsolete by the end of 2032, help out by doing these two things:
- Use the share button to share the podcast with friends, family, and co-workers. This way, you give the women disrupting tech the platform they need to make it happen. Use the buttons below to share.
- Rate the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Better yet, leave a review. You can use a rating of one to five stars. This will help other people discover the podcast. And if you leave a review, it will help me improve.
What makes this episode magical🌟?
The magic of this episode is in the second part of the conversation when Lieke opens up about her struggles. The result is a vulnerable conversation about managing energy, adapting to the world, and her decision to take a break from Visual Contracts.
Lieke also highlights how essential it is for running a successful business to have alignment with your co-founder and what she has learned from having to end the relationship with the previous one.
And if you think the legal world is into great design, you want to listen to Lieke explaining the curse of the word design in a legal context.
“The diversity and inclusion part … that has always been the driver.”
Lieke Beelen, Founder of Visual Contracts
About Lieke Beelen and Visual Contracts
Lieke Beelen is the founder of Visual Contracts. She used her background in Industrial Design Engineering to build a platform that businesses can use to make their contracts easy to understand for ordinary human beings like you and me.
You can connect with her and follow her journey on LinkedIn. And if you’d like to learn more about Visual Contracts, feel free to visit the website or the LinkedIn page. Lieke also set up a Visual Contracts Community on LinkedIn that you can join.
Let me know what you think!
Please let me know your thoughts about this episode of Women Disrupting Tech in the comments.
I’m experimenting with letting the flow determine the conversation. The purpose is to see if I can connect with guests on a deeper level than I’ve done so far. So feel free to tell me if that made for a good episode.
And if you would like to suggest a guest that I absolutely must have on the podcast, send me an email or a DM on LinkedIn.
What’s coming up?
Next week on Women Disrupting Tech, we learn from Dr. Ma Cherie Cortez how to master cultural intelligence in seven steps.
After that, I will have a guest who has been at the top of my “people to interview” list since the beginning of the show. I will not yet reveal who it is, but I promise you that it’s going to be special.
So stay tuned for more inspiring women disrupting tech and their male allies in season three of Women Disrupting Tech!
More episodes like this?
This episode is quite difficult to compare because we’re discussing personal feelings. That said, there are a couple of quite special conversations that I think you’ll enjoy.
– In episode 4, Faviola Dadis shares how she was dealing with personal health issues.
– In episode 9, Marie Weijler shares a bit about her work-life balance.
– In episode 18, Lotte Leufkens talks about what being an elite bridge player does to your popularity at school.
The last two episodes are in Dutch and are in the top 10 of most listened-to episodes.
Women Disrupting Tech | The Podcast 