Dayton's 'Tech Startup of the Year' launches new app partnership

Dayton software and app development firm Mile Two has been more than a little busy.

Just in the last three weeks: Mile Two has been hailed as the Dayton Development Coalition’s “best entrepreneurial tech start-up of the year” and now is unveiling a partnership with CuroStudio, a Dayton-based technology venture which will focus on lawyers and their clients.

Chad Burton is an attorney and founder of CuroStudio and CuroLegal, the law technology consulting firm Burton created in 2013. He said the “studio” operates virtually, although it can use Mile Two’s staff and space at 444 E. Second St.

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The idea is to modernize legal services to improve access to those services. He said more than 80 percent of Americans who need legal services simply aren’t getting them.

His solutions include identifying technology that helps legal service providers offer more efficient, lower-cost services and helping customers find the right providers.

One solution is a online one-way “legal checkup,” Burton said, a way to answer questions online to determine problems and point the way to solutions for users

A user answers questions and at the end, a possible solution is indicated. One version of that idea specifically for veterans already exists, Burton said.

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“What we’re looking at specifically from the studio perspective is broader than that,” he said. “We’re looking to build solutions that have a structural impact.”

Mile Two has been a natural partner for CuroLegal, Burton said. “It is clear that they’re in line with our vision and operate very similarly.”

The studio is the next step, moving from a work-for-hire model for clients to a more focused research-and-development approach, he said.

For its part, Mile Two, based in Webster Station, continues to launch an array of products. The company in less than a week will have a place in the Dayton Legal Hackathon, a chance for software developers to tackle real problems in just 48 hours.

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The Dayton Legal Hackathon  will be Feb. 23 to 25. The local event will join similar events in more than 25 cities in what is being billed as the first "global legal hackathon."

The idea is to quickly develop tech solutions for lawyers and law firms.

“I think that helps us stand out compared to most companies,” Jeff Graley, one of Mile Two’s founders, said in a recent interview. “It’s that diversity, where we’re applying the talent that we have.”

“It started a couple of years ago as just the two of us, wondering where is this going to go,” Graley said, referring to partner Jorge Sanchez. “And then, to be recognized at that event (the coalition’s annual meeting) with 800 people there … that’s a really good feeling.”

While Mile Two is known for creating the “VYE” software with Dayton’s Ascend Innovations, the software firm hasn’t focused on one industry or product.

VYE tracks a user’s eye movement, lending clues as to whether brain injuries may be an issue.

Mile Two’s work also touches defense, law and health care.

“I think a lot of it is the diversity,” Graley said. “That diversity has led to us spinning out a health care platform to help consultants support the health care industry.”

That health care platform will be unveiled in the spring, he expects.

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