This summer, Forbes revealed that tech luminary Peter Thiel had secretly been backing Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker. It was a wake-up call that people could fund a lawsuit bent on destroying a business — and that it's perfectly legal to do so.

A new startup, Legalist, is looking to make money from the practice of bankrolling lawsuits. The startup plans to fund those that it calculates has a chance to win.

But Eva Shang, its cofounder, told Business Insider that it's not looking to become Peter Thiel in startup form — even though Shang is a Thiel Fellow, meaning that she took a $100,000 investment from Thiel's foundation to build Legalist.