Paperlex
Paperlex
https://paperlex.com/
From the last NYEBN meetup, Paperlex was a favorite amongst the investor panel. Small surprise given that Paperlex has been making the circuit, I saw them demo at NYTech Meetup in Feb. So, what is the hype about Paperlex?
First off, let's be clear of what it is not. It is not a service that offers contract templates or other legal documents, like LegalZoom or any of those other services.
Paperlex is a service allowing users to manage all of their contracts and legal documents through all stages of the workflow. Using the dashboard, the user can quickly see what contracts are at what stage, draft, pending signature, complete, etc. And even more important, it allows for version control, so that people no longer need to email versions back and forth and can access it all online.
This service was develop by lawyer/contract managers for business contract managers. The sample use case is for a company that handles hundreds of NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreements) like an entertainment agency.
Currently the service is free, as the team tries to gain traction, but the business model going forward is tiered payment based on quantity of documents being handled as well as additional features.
At the heart of it, this is a classic example of how people are using technology to improve the workflow problems they encounter in their day-to-day jobs. It is a wonder how much people have gotten by though sending files back and forth via email. But frankly, the entire process sounds similar to any process workflow, like purchase orders, or any b2b contractual agreement. I am sure that Paperlex can figure some way to create a generic version to offer to other industries that also have documents they want to track.
Paper:
Manage entire contract workflow using a dashboard showing the status of all documents in their various stages. Version control to offer a better approach to edits.
Very basic idea of streamlining one specific business process, contract management. Very simple to replicate. I doubt there is much IP for this and thus I can see other services incorporating this feature into their offerings. At the core, it is simply the ability to assign and sort files based on the status. And when it comes to the version control, it is a pale imitation of what programmers have used for ages, version control like subversion or git.
Invest-able? I cannot see this product making much money. As stated, this idea should be easy to replicate. That being said, Paperlex does offer the software as a white label solution, allowing developers to embed the software seemlessly into existing platforms.
From my experience with SAP, I know that there have been work to deal with contracts, specifically leasing contracts in terms of status and providing a dashboard to give a quick view of all documents based on the stage of the process they are at. Sure, if the company does not use an ERP solution and needs a lightweight product to handle contract management, then I guess Paperlex fits.
Not a "big" idea, more a simple immediate solution to a specific problem.
I understand the value that these small solutions offer to antiquated processes, but I can't help judge their narrow vision on things. Maybe it is the MVP to improve the entire process of dealing with contracts or version control of documents, but as of right now, the focus is too narrow and the scope too small. But sure, this is what you would term a dime stock, that it's cheap and it will generate money albeit at a lower rate. Sure you can invest in it, but it won't be fluctuating too much.