Dúo de WPB crea firma de datos sobre ejecuciones hipotecarias

West Palm Beach duo builds foreclosure data-filtering firm

10/27/2010 © The Palm Beach Post

WEST PALM BEACH — They say they’re just two guys with laptops and a water cooler.
But the electronic system of collecting and organizing judicial records that Jay Hollenkamp, 28, and Michael Olenick, 44, have created streams data gold to court-hungry customers.
Their West Palm Beach-based company, Legalprise Inc., snatches information from state foreclosure court records and filters it into searchable spreadsheets. For example, they can tally how many times a law firm has requested a summary judgment in a foreclosure case, or how often attorneys file paperwork saying a home’s note is lost.

Started a year and a half ago, Legalprise collects data from five states, including Florida, and hopes to expand to cover all 23 states where foreclosures are part of the judicial process.
Its clients are mostly attorneys, some of whom use the data to market to new customers.
But the small start-up, which is run out of an old second-floor apartment above a Pilates studio along Dixie Highway, got a business boost when major lenders temporarily froze their foreclosure proceedings beginning in September.
The concern was that improperly filed, or even fraudulent, court documents were being used in foreclosure cases.
“When you see one lost summons, it looks bad,” Olenick said. “But when you see that hundreds have been filed, it’s something totally different and you know something is wrong.”
Since news of the foreclosure flaws surfaced, Olenick said, the company has been inundated with requests for information from reporters, attorneys, and state agencies wanting to investigate the situation.
“I’ve barely been sleeping,” Olenick said.
Both Olenick and Hollenkamp have law degrees. Olenick never practiced, but said the education helps him build better court-related computer programs.
Hollenkamp worked as a corporate bankruptcy attorney before joining Olenick. The University of Florida graduate said he’s always been interested in entrepreneurship and helping build a company from the ground up. He said Legalprise is like a Google for foreclosure cases.
But the partners are hoping to build it into more than a search engine, possibly creating an analysis or rating agency.
Legalprise is looking for investors and taking on interns.
This summer it will have students from one of Palm Beach County’s top academic programs at Suncoast High School helping crunch numbers.
“What’s stopping us isn’t demand, it’s capacity,” Olenick said.