If you've ended up here, it's quite likely that you're looking to send out an electronic contract, agreement, NDA, or some agreement of sorts. Well, you've come to the right place. Startups, individuals, and organizations use electronic signature software tools to build and manage legal documents online. Read on to learn more about the importance of written agreements and find a feature-by-feature comparison between some of the top electronic signature software tools on the market.

Written agreements are crucial in any business as they offer clarity, protection, easy dispute resolution, and most importantly are enforceable in a court of law.

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

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

• E-signature functionality - The bare minimum for any e-signature tool is to enable you to send and receive legally binding signatures and contracts. Additionally, signature reminders, multiple signatories in a single agreement have all become must-have features. These features are table stakes.
• Intelligent document storage and data platform - The information you input into your documents can and should be structured to be available for quick use in other legal agreements.
• Automatic document classification - Whether it’s an NDA, hiring contract, or ESOP agreement, you want a system that is able to automatically detect and classify all of your documents for you, so you can focus your time elsewhere.
• Integration with HR, Legal, and Finance tools - Having your e-signature solution integrate directly with your tech stack saves you a lot of valuable time by automatically ensuring all company data is synchronized across all your tools. 
• Pre-filled fields - Your e-signature solution should pull out key information from your HR, finance, and legal tech stack without you having to manually copy & paste data into templates.
• 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 - State compliance can be very tricky as it varies from state to state. You want accurate and relevant information to streamline your compliance process.
• Ease of Use - All the leading online tools have an easy and intuitive user experience with a simple and swift process to send online agreements.