Philip Becnel, our managing partner, published an article in Law.com called, “Can Investigations be Uber-ized?” The article is a critique of start-up Trustify, which offers investigations for cheap through an app interface. Philip is a regular contributor to Law.com.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
As it happened, the whole exercise ended up being kind of sad, and not only because they didn’t do the investigation we requested. The biggest disappointment was that, although they did take the initial request and payment through an app, virtually all of the communication with Trustify was done over the phone. As such, it was really no different than hiring any private investigative firm—only it was less efficient since the person we spoke to wasn’t actually an investigator.
It turns out that Trustify is not the Uber of private investigations. Think about it. The real Uber is not an app that allows customers to hire licensed taxicabs; that would be redundant. Uber hires it’s own drivers, cutting taxicabs out of the equation completely. A more appropriate analogy of what Trustify does would be a travel agency, an industry that more or less went bankrupt with the advent of companies like Travelocity.
Philip has been quoted several times in the media about Trustify’s services. The rest of the article can be found here. Note that it requires you to log in though your LinkedIn account or to sign up for a free Law.com subscription.