Gone are the days of physical contracts and notaries. Electronic signature software has developed leaps and bounds in the last 5 years. While you can find a variety of options on the market, we're here to help you choose the best one for your startup.

What should an early-stage founder look for in an e-signature solution?

Before we get into comparing Hellosign and Docusign, let’s first look at what an early-stage founder should look for in an e-signature solution (in no specific order):

• E-signature functionality - Given we are comparing e-signature solutions, the solution should enable you to send and receive legally binding signatures with the ability to include multiple stakeholders as well as send reminders. These features are table stakes.
• Intelligent document storage and data platform - The fields you input into your documents shouldn’t get buried and lost in PDFs. Rather, this information should be structured and available for use in your other contracts.
• Automatic document classification - You want an intelligent system that’s able to recognize the document you store and automatically tag and classify it with minimal effort on your side.
• Pre-filled fields - As a founder, you want to be as efficient as possible. You want your e-signature solution to pull out key information from your HR, finance, and legal tech stack without you having to enter each product and copy-paste data into templates.
• Integration with HR, Legal, and Finance tools - As a founder, time is a scarce resource. Manually updating data across tools like Carta, Gusto, and Ramp is tedious and time-consuming.
• Powerful search - This is a game-changer. You want robust, fast searchability that scans through the text within these documents and helps you find what you’re looking for within seconds.
• Flexible permissions - Contracts and agreements often require multiple stakeholders’ signatures or inputs. You want to be able to collaborate on and share these documents with specific people (e.g. your lawyers, hiring managers, cofounder, etc.) whilst controlling access.
• Compliance advisory - Relevant guidance on critical but infrequent processes, from seasoned operators, not google or your friends.
• Ease of Use - No founder wants to spend time going through a complicated series of steps just to send out a simple hiring contract or an NDA.