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Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

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201–210 of 348 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#201
One of the things I dislike about DocuSign is there’s no linkage to the document used to create the PDF you’re supposed to sign. I was once sent a DocuSign email by a large/seemingly reputable company, and I read through it to make sure it was what I expected. It wasn’t — they had edited a key provision, in a way that favored them.

Most people don’t read through DocuSigns, partly because the platform makes them difficult/impossible to word search. It would be great if every email from DocuSign included a Word doc of the agreement you’re being asked to sign. Otherwise the platform can be manipulated by unscrupulous people who take advantage of how hard it is to review documents on the platform.

You might be able to argue that you had not truly assented to the modified provision, using emails exchanged back and forth to show what the parties had agreed to prior to the DocuSign email. But it would be an uphill battle to prove this, so it’s always better to not have your signature on a document whose provisions you don’t agree with (IAAL).

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an issue with private arbitration per se, it's an issue of being practically forced into it under unreasonable terms with no alternative options.

The fact that you can't do that with the public courts but you can with private arbitration makes it an issue with private arbitration. Parties with fewer resources are at a huge disadvantage in either system, but there are degrees of disadvantage. It is misleading to examine the outcome of arbitration once the rules are "agreed" to without taking into account that the process of setting the rules strongly influences…

If private arbitration is not forced upon you, then there is no problem. Thus, it's not a private arbitration issue, it's forced and unappealable private arbitration issue, which is a different matter (not the thing itself but how this thing is applied)

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#203

One of the things I dislike about DocuSign is there’s no linkage to the document used to create the PDF you’re supposed to sign. I was once sent a DocuSign email by a large/seemingly reputable company, and I read through it to make sure it was what I expected. It wasn’t — they had edited a key provision, in a way that favored them. Most people don’t read through DocuSigns, partly because the platform makes them diffi…

I hope you (or your client) chose to cease all dealings with that counterparty...

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#204
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good reminder that HN is a horrible place for investment advice. Rarely, very very rarely, does the tech being differentiated ever matter. At Docusign’s level, it’s much more about sales and marketing. They’ve been the market leader for years, and even if they slip to 2nd or 3rd place, they’re still a massive multibillion dollar company. I think engineers and technical people often have a hard time truly gr…

Curious… what helped you cross this conceptual gap?

Mostly by building a product and competing in a market where the leaders have horrendous products. HR, Compliance, Corporate Training Software, Healthcare, etc.

In terms of pure tech and UX, its almost a disqualifier to have good tech or good design as ironic as that sounds.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear this a lot, blockchain is going to replace X accepted industry solution. I always go back to, who’s going to invest in actually building the new blockchain solution and for what reason? Big companies pay other big companies like Docusign to figure it out for them and they pay a premium for not having to deal with it themselves. Blockchain as a technology really doesn’t offer a lot of practical advantage over t…

> I always go back to, who’s going to invest in actually building the new blockchain solution and for what reason? blockchain is really hot with VCs these days, so that’s who. why? the rewards for a document signing product are large — as evidenced by new traditional companies entering the space (HelloSign). basing a new competitor in this space off of blockchain offers differentiation. despite being less mature or f…

I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. That there is money to be made on industry solutions is not in dispute.

The point in dispute is that decentralized blockchain based solution makes any sense. Other than to attract VCs who don’t know any better to give you capital, blockchain offers no competitive advantage to an upstart or really a competitive threat to the incumbents.

Further I see no desirable “differentiation” for a customer to be interested. It doesn’t in fact even solve a customer problem. It’s just noise.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#206

It's a service every company needs and most aren't willing to build. This is in large part because most companies don't have the security expertise to handle sensitive data so it makes tons of sense to outsource. Even the companies that do have that expertise may not want to invest their resources outside their core business. The important thing to consider is how much would it cost you to build/deploy a solution to…

Also the legal headaches when a counterparty claims that you forged the signature, or manipulated the contract?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really like it -- lots of legal documents I've signed over the past few years are in DocuSign. Which also means that I have easy storage for my _own_ documents. If I log in, I can see the lease I signed 3-4 years ago, the contract I signed last year, etc. etc. Plus, yeah, you get to see if the other party signed, all the appropriate spots for signing are flagged, the entire audit trail of the document. It's super c…

DocuSign does not cost $10. It costs $10/month, which is waaaay more I’d spend to save past signed documents in the cloud. It’d be “cheap” or an acceptable price if a signed document costed $5. Subscriptions are BS for occasional users.

For signing documents or accessing documents you signed you don’t have to pay anything.

If you are creating documents to be signed , 10-20$ is insignificant cost even if it is was per document.

Most contracts are worth lot more, most lawyers who draft these types of documents costs more . Sending a copy of a physical document by USPS for overnight delivery to couple of people will cost you that much.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#209
post #187
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you advocate for the privatization of the entire justice system?

> Would you advocate for the privatization of the entire justice system? What if that meant that people could fire their police department and replace it with a different one if they didn't like the way it operated?

Do you have any examples of societies where this is possible through a privatization mechanism?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?

#210
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you advocate for the privatization of the entire justice system?

That depends-- have you ever had something stolen from you, which you then reported to police, after which nothing happened?

No, I haven't personally but I'm assuming that you have. If that is the case did you end up hiring a private detective and security force to remediate your circumstance?
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