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Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

hellobonsai.com

21–30 of 42 posts

Re: Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

#21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a fee or an ongoing interest penalty? If a fee, then wouldn't it be 5% one time?

A one-time fee incentives them to not pay late, but once they are already late, there is no more incentive since they have already incurred the 5% fee.

Indeed, still exploring carrot and stick options here to get clients to pay on time.

One nice idea we've come across is a trivial discount for early / on time payment (~1-3%). We've heard anecdotally that it helps!

Re: Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

#22
post #18
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to their FAQ page the contract templates/UI are free, with their business model being based on their escrow services - which are not being offered publicly yet. I believe that its going to take them quite some time to start offering escrow services, due to the strict escrow regulation and the (very high!) costs associated with that. My bet is that they won't offer it until after raising their Series A.

I remember balancedpayments had an escrow feature. Perhaps they could use another 3rd party service to accomplish this?

Indeed, escrow is highly regulated in some states, including CA. There are a few third party services that provide an API for escrow among other things: http://www.armorpayments.com/ and http://promisepay.com/.

Stripe and Braintree can also support some versions of escrow, depending on how long you want to hold the money for and the amount.

Re: Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

#24
post #4

Skimming over the title and the URL, I was hoping to find a Bonsai care/maintenance contractor network. How do you reach your target audience with a company name and URL like yours? Could you provide a sample contract without the need to enter a valid E-Mail address?

Funny, from the description on the title I thought this was going to be another cryptocurrency project.

Re: Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

#25
post #3

If only this existed for the United Kindgom. Looks like a great, accessible service.

Would love a service like this for the UK!

Yeah, but they'd need to cover what the IPSE/PCG contract template covers already; for those few occasions where a client will accept it ...

Re: Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

#26
post #10

This looks quite interesting. A couple of things i would like to see are: - sample without the need to provide an email e.g. show at least one and offer more samples when email is provided - what's the pricing / cut you take from the money transferred through your service?

One of the makers of Bonsai here. Thanks for checking us out! - Agree re email. Reason we did that is we realized most people don't have the need to create a contract immediately, and unless they bookmark us, they may not remember "that cool website that does my contracts for me..." Providing the sample contract + other relevant educational material in the meantime to stay top of mind was the best short term way to d…

Thanks for this. It couldn't have been more timely!

No kidding, I have my first meeting with a potential client in an hour, and last night I was thinking in my head "How do I even talk about guaranteeing payment?" and then I see this when I woke up.

Thanks for building it!

Re: Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

#27
Looks interesting. I live in Canada and have contractors worldwide. I suspect this is a typical case.

I don't really care about contracts but escrow would be useful. I mean, I don't care about a formal legally binding contract that covers canada-Indonesia, phillipines, UK, etc. that would be complicated. But having a secure way to pay outside of elance/up work would be nice.

Also, when I click "let us know" it opens the mail app on my iPhone. I haven't set that up. You would have better luck if the email was also displayed.

Re: Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

#28
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A one-time fee incentives them to not pay late, but once they are already late, there is no more incentive since they have already incurred the 5% fee.

Indeed, still exploring carrot and stick options here to get clients to pay on time. One nice idea we've come across is a trivial discount for early / on time payment (~1-3%). We've heard anecdotally that it helps!

I hope that's coming out of your share.

Re: Bonsai: Bulletproof contracts, simple e-signing, escrow for freelancers

#30
This is my first time posting on Hacker News.

Can I just say that you should be very careful about describing your contracts as "Bulletproof".

There is honestly no such thing as a bulletproof contract.

Secondly, telling people that "top attorneys" drafted the contracts is meaningless. That strikes me as just pure throw away marketing speak.

There are many things to consider when drafting this type of agreement and I'm just not sure that your description of the service should give freelancers great comfort.

Just my two cents. I do love the idea and know first hand the importance of having a contract in place.

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