As someone who has never worked in an enterprise SaaS will never fully understand the hype or secret sauce around building and selling eSignature software.
Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
51–60 of 164 posts
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the ceremony of a signature has been socially recognised for thousands of years. That's what our society expects.
>Because the ceremony of a signature Come to think of it, I remember "signing" pdfs in adobe reader by clicking a form field that produced a signature similar to[1]: John Smith Digitally signed by CN=John Smith [...] This would satisfy the "ceremony" requirement. According to adobe[2] it looks like you can do this with self signed certificates, so it's completely free as well. But this option is significantly less po…
The main benefit is around workflows. First and foremost, if you are in a position where you need external people to sign documents (say you're a photographer and need signed releases), it's a lot easier to send someone a link to the standard document and get them to sign a release then to email them and then call the person and walk them through digitally signing a document. Especially if you're doing this 50+ times a year. And you typically get the documents signed much quicker. It's pretty much the difference between having to mail in a check for every payment vs using a web portal. It's more convenient and there's a faster turnaround time. Oh and you've removed the risk that something isn't signed correctly (was there a section that wasn't initialed?) or that something was redlined. It's certainly not for everyone or every business, but there are certain use cases where the money is well worth it.
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#53This acquisition will fail if Whitney, Neal and the HelloSign team isn't given the freedom and authority to direct integration, marketing and product direction going forward. HelloSign has demonstrated competencies Dropbox has not. Great that Dropbox nailed sync, desktop integration and sharing years ago; but since then they've done little to show any vision or execution in marketing, sales or product direction. As a…
Why are you a dropbox shareholder if you think that the company faces "almost certain failure"?
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think it is meant to be negative. I think “snares” could be positive or negative. I interpreted it as Dropbox was fortunate to acquire HelloSign. Also, this may just be some creative writing. Dropbox’s announcement did not use such language.
> I think “snares” could be positive or negative. You know a snare is a hidden trap for animals? I can't imagine being snared to be positive - it implies you're going to be skinned or eaten.
I've certainly heard snared used positively. As in, one has snared something that is beneficial to them and difficult to catch
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#55As someone who has never worked in an enterprise SaaS will never fully understand the hype or secret sauce around building and selling eSignature software.
because printing a document, signing it with a pen, taking a photo of it, and emailing it back is a thing rich investors keep having to do.
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#56If anyone at Techcrunch is reading "Snare" is not an appropriate word selection for the title of an article describing a friendly acquisition. A "snare" or to "ensnare" is to trap an animal generally with a noose. The correct wording is "Dropbox Snags Hellosign." Such an incorrect word choice would have never have made it past an editor or proofreader. The level of journalism at TC is truly cringeworthy.
Sorry, but snare can be used in this context. I highly suggest consulting a dictionary if you are unsure about the definition of a word. Just because the word used is not definition 1, doesn’t mean it’s incorrect. Snare is absolutely acceptable in this context.
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#57As someone who has never worked in an enterprise SaaS will never fully understand the hype or secret sauce around building and selling eSignature software.
because printing a document, signing it with a pen, taking a photo of it, and emailing it back is a thing rich investors keep having to do.
You can sign docs with free Apple software on Mac/iPhone
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#58This acquisition will fail if Whitney, Neal and the HelloSign team isn't given the freedom and authority to direct integration, marketing and product direction going forward. HelloSign has demonstrated competencies Dropbox has not. Great that Dropbox nailed sync, desktop integration and sharing years ago; but since then they've done little to show any vision or execution in marketing, sales or product direction. As a…
Have you used Paper? Also an acquired team, and a great product that has seen a bevy of improvements since being under Dropbox.
Paper is a security nightmare. Every document is automatically accessible publicly if you know the url. You need to set each document individually to private. At least for the Personal/Pro plans.
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#59As someone who has never worked in an enterprise SaaS will never fully understand the hype or secret sauce around building and selling eSignature software.
Sending, reviewing, and signing documents is something every business needs to do and is difficult to get right according to all the laws in every region served and all the workflow requirements that companies and users want.
These needs may be "unsexy" compared to another social media app but they drive major value in the corporate world while building strong sustainable businesses.
Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M
#60This acquisition will fail if Whitney, Neal and the HelloSign team isn't given the freedom and authority to direct integration, marketing and product direction going forward. HelloSign has demonstrated competencies Dropbox has not. Great that Dropbox nailed sync, desktop integration and sharing years ago; but since then they've done little to show any vision or execution in marketing, sales or product direction. As a…
Have you used Paper? Also an acquired team, and a great product that has seen a bevy of improvements since being under Dropbox.
Paper is an embarrassment for a company with Dropbox's resources and past accomplishments. It’s a half-hearted effort that vaguely reminds me of Drop.io (which was terrific), with a small fraction of the utility. If you're going to make a centralized and open repository for specific content then benchmark against what works(ed).