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Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

hellosign.com

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Re: Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

#101

Post by nostromo »

I've been using the sign feature in Preview on Mac for a while now and love it. I no longer use a printer. Nice to see someone remove the download, save, and attach step.

Every time I use Preview, I can't help but feel like the entire idea of a signature is archaic and strange. In effect, I'm forging my own signature with Preview, and nobody cares. While I'm at it, I wish I could not only "sign" the document, but sign it in e-blood and maybe add a skeuomorphic graphic that seals the email in paraffin wax with a old english stamp of my initials.

Or maybe someone can figure out how to get us beyond signatures.

Re: Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

#102

Post by meerita »

I worked for a company with the most complete, secure and law-reliable e-sign solution. And this kind of startups offer, well, nothing more than a straight "signature" solution. They don't offer any more than that. That signature has more o less 'Level 0' of evidence information in case you want to go a dispute.

The signature method is more or less like the current signatures you will use in USA, because you don't have an eID like us, europeans, wich allows us to sign documents with higher levels of law conformity, security and evidence.

Put it like this: anyone can make this, anyone. Unless you go with stronger methods, profiting eIDs, and certificates, you're just doing an useless signature solution.

Re: Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

#103

Post by brk »

davidjgraph wrote: post #54
brk wrote: post #42

I'll be honest, I'm tired of "free". I'd rather see some definitive information under the Pricing section. I'm tired of getting "invested" in web apps that are free, and then having them pivot dramatically or go under. This is less of an issue for small things, but anything that I'm going to incorporate into my business workflow needs to have at least some semblance of a business plan apparent. Looks neat, I'll be ha…

How long does something need to be provider for for free before you trust that it'll stay that way? This is an attitude we're trying to overcome with our model.

I'm not sure there is a universal answer to this.

It's not about the duration of "Free", it's about the emergence of a recognizable business model, and also about the general complexity of the product and how frequently I would use it and come to rely on it.

Another issue is that we all know that nothing is "free", and as the saying goes "if you're not paying for it, YOU are the product". I don't like the idea of business documents with my signature somehow ending up in an ad-based business model.

B2B sales models and tactics are (IME) very different than B2C. On the plus side, B2B is more likely to be receptive to a paid-for product, and the down side it can be somewhat more difficult to get the viral exposure you get from a B2C product since not as many people are likely to be interested in it, or able to decide for themselves if they can use your product.

A freemium model works good here. Have pricing set upfront and clearly defined. Let me test the product with no risk for some period of time and then convert to a paying customer (or not).

Re: Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

#104

Post by b_emery »

nostromo wrote: post #101

I've been using the sign feature in Preview on Mac for a while now and love it. I no longer use a printer. Nice to see someone remove the download, save, and attach step. Every time I use Preview, I can't help but feel like the entire idea of a signature is archaic and strange. In effect, I'm forging my own signature with Preview, and nobody cares. While I'm at it, I wish I could not only "sign" the document, but sig…

Thanks - I didn't even know it was an option. Apparently it is on Lion and above (which is 10.7 for those of us who can't keep their cat's straight).

Here's a link to how it works: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20082711-285/how-to-use-...

Re: Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

#105

Post by antidamage »

antidamage wrote: post #99

This shit's appallingly invasive. After downloading the plugin their support team emailed me a sales pitch. Really, really unhappy about that.

Just received a second email an hour later, this time for hellofax. What part of "installing a plugin" makes it OK to email me?

I can't believe anyone supports a company that spams so aggressively.

Are all the near-identical sounding overly positive comments in this thread all astroturf? Surely a bunch of programmers and networking people can't be that excited about being able to sign documents online. In fact, this reeks of astroturfing.

Re: Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

#106

Post by netcoyote »

meerita wrote: post #102

I worked for a company with the most complete, secure and law-reliable e-sign solution. And this kind of startups offer, well, nothing more than a straight "signature" solution. They don't offer any more than that. That signature has more o less 'Level 0' of evidence information in case you want to go a dispute. The signature method is more or less like the current signatures you will use in USA, because you don't ha…

I'd be interested in learning more; can you provide the URL?

Re: Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

#107

Post by benatkin »

benatkin wrote: post #48
guiseppecalzone wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joseph here, cofounder of HelloSign / HelloFax. Thanks for the comment. Paul Buchheit is an investor, so he got an early view of the plugin. We were especially interested in his feedback, since he created Gmail. As a company, we have made a conscious decision not to disclose our funding. But, for the purposes of transparency, we'd like to make clear that he's an investor.

> As a company, we have made a conscious decision not to disclose our funding. But, for the purposes of transparency, we'd like to make clear that he's an investor. I think the situation requires it. If you want to keep your investors secret you can remove the quote, otherwise you can just add that Paul Buchheit is an investor. You don't even have to change the markup. There is plenty of room to change it to "Paul Bu…

I see this change was implemented. Way to go! https://www.hellosign.com/gmail

This is auxiliary but it makes me more interested in using HelloSign.

BTW I think it's even better for marketing this way. Now it's a double-endorsement.

Re: Introducing HelloSign for Gmail

#108

Post by relix »

negativity wrote: post #66

Why, why, WHY does no one even question the idea of graphic signatures to begin with? This thing where we scan a piece of paper or paste in a little image has always smacked of forgery to me anyway? All I need is one image of your signature, and I can sign for you anywhere I want. It's like when they hand out rubber stamps for secretaries to use. It's like somewhere along the line, wherever you see hand-written signa…

Signatures aren't a way to authenticate yourself securely. They're just a more definite version of a checkbox that says "I agree". They're not supposed to be secure, they are and always have been easy to forge. When was the last time someone checked the signature on your credit card?

The only protection signatures offer is by law - it is forbidden to sign as someone else.

These scanned/digital signatures are nothing new. People have been signing documents and faxing them (in effect copying them) since faxes exist. That's basically the same: nobody can tell if you just pasted a copy of a signature on the document before you faxed it, or if you really did sign it.

In Estonia, the digital ID card enables people to digitally sign documents. There's a law that says these digital signatures are as valid as a handwritten signature, and must be accepted as such. It has become very popular [0]. To me it is a very smart idea to train your citizens to use digital signatures which are both more reliable and easier to verify.

[0]: http://news.err.ee/sci-tech/16da12d4-ddca-43a5-b12f-024866e9...

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