FairShake gave ordinary consumers real leverage against companies that counted on them not fighting back — at real scale, and with real results.
FairShake — the consumer-arbitration startup, unrelated to the crypto-industry PAC of the same name — started when Teel Lidow, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with a law degree, was refused fair compensation for an 8-hour flight that ended up taking three days. Like most consumers, his contract with the airline had a mandatory arbitration clause — the fine print that strips away the right to sue in court or join a class action, and instead forces individual disputes into a process most people can't afford a lawyer for. He built FairShake so anyone could use that same process to their advantage instead of being shut out by it.
A consumer described the company and the issue; FairShake drafted a formal legal demand and gave the company a deadline to settle.
If the company didn't respond, FairShake filed the case as an arbitration with the American Arbitration Association — and only got paid if the consumer did.
In 2018, FairShake helped consumers file over 1,000 claims at once against AT&T and Comcast — enough to strain the companies' own arbitration systems.
FairShake is the pattern VentureChoice exists to multiply: someone who understood a problem firsthand — because it happened to them — building technology that hands an individual leverage a lawyer would otherwise cost too much to get. That's the bar we hold every venture we incubate to: does it give people real tools against exploitation, or real access to something fairer than what they have now.
Sources: ABA Journal, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, FairShake.
If you understand it firsthand and have done real early work on a solution, we want to hear from you.
Apply Now