We’re excited to share that Candle AI was named Runner-Up in the 10th Annual Startup Alley pitch competition at ABA TECHSHOW 2026 in Chicago.

Startup Alley is the opening event of TECHSHOW, the American Bar Association’s annual legal technology conference, where 15 legal tech startups compete for the top prize, with the winner selected by a live audience vote. Out of that field, Candle AI earned second place — a meaningful milestone for our team and the customers we build for.

What This Moment Means to Us

For co-founders Sujith Jose and Carl Davidson, stepping onto that stage reflected the real-world challenges that legal professionals deal with every day — and the progress being made to solve them.

“Standing in that room, knowing that legal professionals across the country had voted for us, was one of the most humbling moments of my career. This recognition reflects the users who gave candid feedback, reported issues, and pushed us to keep improving.”

— Sujith Jose, Co-Founder & CEO, Candle AI

“ABA TECHSHOW reminded us why we started Candle in the first place. The number of attorneys dealing with constant email overload — spending hours managing their inbox instead of serving clients — is still very real. We left Chicago more focused than ever on solving that.”

— Carl Davidson, Co-Founder, Candle AI

The Problem We’re Solving

Candle AI is an email intelligence layer built specifically for small and mid-sized law firms, embedded directly inside Gmail and Outlook. We connect a firm’s existing tech stack — including practice management systems like Clio, Filevine, and MyCase — and surface the right context at the right moment, inside the inbox attorneys already use.

Email remains the center of gravity for most law firms. Attorneys spend a significant amount of time triaging, searching, and manually logging communications that should be automatic. Candle changes that.

A Community-Supported Milestone

The Startup Alley competition relies on public voting to advance finalists, making this result a strong signal of support from the legal tech community.

To everyone who voted, shared feedback, or took the time to see what we’re building — thank you.

What’s Next

The momentum from TECHSHOW is carrying into what comes next. We’re continuing to build new features, deepen integrations, and improve performance for the legal professionals who rely on Candle every day.

Congratulations to CollBox, this year’s Startup Alley winner, and to Lawdify, who took third place. It was a strong group of companies across the board.

If you’re looking to spend less time managing email and more time serving clients, you can learn more about Candle AI at trycandle.ai/demo.

Candle AI is an email intelligence platform built for law firms, embedded inside Gmail and Outlook. Learn more at trycandle.ai.