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

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

#241

Post by supertrope »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #122
yellow_lead wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, you can even sign (drawn signature) a PDF with Acrobat or Foxit or Libre, return it over email, and it's binding.

Which is why it’s infuriating when someone requires a “wet” signature - AFAIK it’s not more binding than above, so why are you forcing me to print something out, sign it and scan it?

Inertia. Lack of knowledge. This problem feeds off itself. If both parties agree to sign electronically it’s valid. In a population of luddites adoption remains low because they’re worried other luddites or cautious people don’t accept electronic documents. One silver lining to Covid is that businesses have been forced to adapt by moving up their digital workflow deployments or go out of business.

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

#243

Post by dragonwriter »

lostcolony wrote: post #174
sushsjsuauahab wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Sure, but that isn't the question. Do you prefer mandatory arbitration to being able to use the public court system? That's a privatized justice system.

Mandatory arbitration is only mandatory by way of the public court system.

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

#244

Post by lxmorj »

I use SignNow.com - the level of subscription I need is something like $8/mo.

However, I probably use it less than 1/3 of the months that I pay for. This is true for dozens of memberships: Adobe, Canva Pro, Netflix, HBOMax, The Economist, etc.

It'd be nice to have a service that automatically unsubscribes me after every use, but rejoins seamlessly the next time I sign in.

If I pay for a month of Netflix on Jan 1 and immediately unsubscribe, I'm good to use it until Feb 1. If I don't log in for a week, it'd pay on Feb 8th and unsubscribe again. I'd have til March 8th to watch, and I'd save ~25%. For less frequently used services I might save 50% or more this way.

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

#245

Post by adflux »

treis wrote: post #113
jjirsa wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “extraordinarily difficult to do very well” part gets ignored here by most people DocuSign’s feature list is huge. It’s not just overlaying a signature on a doc. It’s a massive and complex app that most people will ignore or trivialize, but that shit just works. Mark all the signature locations? Multi-user? Chained dependencies? Recording and redownloading later? SSO Audit / identification Salesforce integration?…

Even if we grant this as true, a $50 billion valuation implies that they'll return 3-5 billion in profit at some point. Their revenue right now is an annualized ~2 billion. So they've got to at least 2-3x their revenue while increasing their operating income from slightly negative to 50% of revenue. As for the features, of course it's not whip it up in a weekend. But MS/Google/Apple are all in a position to put out a…

Imagine being able to generate docs like these using the office suite , google docs or libreoffice. Bye docusign.

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

#246

Post by rkagerer »

reuven wrote: post #231
88913527 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm almost afraid to ask since it's such a given, but do employees actually get fired for choosing the wrong vendor? I've heard it repeated in quite a few contexts, and I'm unsure if I should interpret it literally. At worst, I would expect the executive has a slightly tarnished reputation for picking what ended up being a bad partner.

I'm not an employee, and didn't exactly get fired -- but I chose a cloud vendor for a client that seemed like the best choice at the time, with what I knew. The client was over-the-moon happy that we had found something to satisfy his needs. After switching, his costs went down dramatically, and his downtime went to zero (from rather high, which is why he brought me in). He was happy to sign a contract with the vendo…

The client told the cloud provider that I had been unauthorized to speak on the company's behalf (untrue)

Apropos of nothing, it's funny how nearly every single consulting contract I've seen which has been prepared by an attorney on the client side tries to slip in a clause like "you shall not act on our behalf or hold yourself out as having authority to obligate or bind us", when that's actually exactly what they're looking to hire me to do (eg. "Please come manage our projects, employees, customer relationships, vendors, banking relationships, products, research branch" or whatever else the role entails).

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

#247

Post by hiptobecubic »

wombatpm wrote: post #195
88913527 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm almost afraid to ask since it's such a given, but do employees actually get fired for choosing the wrong vendor? I've heard it repeated in quite a few contexts, and I'm unsure if I should interpret it literally. At worst, I would expect the executive has a slightly tarnished reputation for picking what ended up being a bad partner.

I have only seen it happen when it turns out the vendor is shadow owned by a senior executive. Usually ends bad for the executive

> Usually ends bad for the executive

"Survivor" bias here. I imagine on average it ends excellently for the executive.

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

#248

Post by CallMeJim »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #222
wallacoloo wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK Coinbase Pro isn’t a market maker, it’s a marketplace . a market maker would be someone who offers to buy/sell some asset for a specific price. for example when i use Coinbase Pro to place an offer to buy 1 Bitcoin for $55000, i’m acting as a market maker. all the same, i agree with you: it’s already cheaper to use Coinbase Pro as an on-ramp to obtain USDC and then trade the USDC on a decentralized exchange tha…

> for example when i use Coinbase Pro to place an offer to buy 1 Bitcoin for $55000, i’m acting as a market maker. My understanding is different. When you place an order, you're absorbing liquidity from the marketplace. A market maker is the party that generates liquidity by fulfilling orders, not the party that destroys it by placing them.

No, a market maker makes (adds to) the market by placing orders.

A market taker takes orders away from the market by completing transactions, thinning the order books.

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

#249

Post by rjha »

hnbear wrote: post #134

Far more than just the cost of implementation and selling that, they're also selling the incredible savings of not having to track and sign documents manually. For a company with a heavy legal, purchasing, or HR department, all of which are very document heavy, having everything automated and electronic saves a ridiculous amount of people-hours and effort. Actual signed contracts need physically storing (securely), e…

>incredible savings of not having to track and sign documents True that. The technical debates on HN on miss the point of why people feel the need to use DocuSign. If only two parties are involved, I will print, put my signature and send the scan. This is what I will do despite having a DocuSign account.

multi party agreements and especially the ones where you are the one needing others signatures (e.g. share holder agreement) and DocuSign are a match made in the heaven. It can send reminders to parties, show you who to nudge and let you download the final version. Compare that to print and put signature workflow.

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

#250

Post by james_in_the_uk »

rkagerer wrote: post #246
reuven wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an employee, and didn't exactly get fired -- but I chose a cloud vendor for a client that seemed like the best choice at the time, with what I knew. The client was over-the-moon happy that we had found something to satisfy his needs. After switching, his costs went down dramatically, and his downtime went to zero (from rather high, which is why he brought me in). He was happy to sign a contract with the vendo…

The client told the cloud provider that I had been unauthorized to speak on the company's behalf (untrue) Apropos of nothing, it's funny how nearly every single consulting contract I've seen which has been prepared by an attorney on the client side tries to slip in a clause like "you shall not act on our behalf or hold yourself out as having authority to obligate or bind us", when that's actually exactly what they're…

In legal terms, they’re not exactly the same.

You are managing the projects etc. as a service being provided under contract.

You are not being granted actual authority to act as an agent of the company.

The clause they are slipping in actually protects you both. If you are appointed as an agent (expressly or by implication) then you become a fiduciary for them which might give you obligations that aren’t necessary spelled out in the contract.

So, this isn’t a clause most well advised people push back on.

If they do still need to sign on behalf of the company in some discreet situations they look into getting a limited power of attorney instead. Safer and clearer for both parties.

Not legal advice of course. I assume your own attorney would have explained this to you anyway.

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