The Dotted Line

Contractually Update: Smarter Contracts On The Way

Create Smarter Forms for Faster Fill-in (Coming Soon)

We’ve had enough of dealing with dumb forms. How about you? We’re working on some cool stuff so you can import your existing contract forms faster, and mark fields like party names and contact information. You’ll then be able to fill in contracts using a guided wizard. Smart and simple.

Got a Moment for a Survey?
Only 7 quick questions, promise! It’ll help us prioritize what we roll out to Contractually.

Click here for the survey
Survey

New Stuff We’ve Added Recently
As we’ve been working on smarter contract forms and other new features to make the contract process even simpler and faster for you, we’ve already made some great changes.

1. User interface for editing contracts: You now get a clean focus on the contract being edited. You’ll also appreciate highlighting key actions like inviting parties and e-signing. We’re making the process simpler for you every step of the way.

2. Add Reviewers to view a contract: It’s simple: reviewers can view but not edit, and they can only view the specific contract to which you invite them. They can send you a message with their comments. You keep better control over versioning, and cut out the contract confusion.

3. Evernote integration: Once a contract is complete you can save a copy to your Evernote account.

4. Accepting invitations with different email address: Unsure of which email address to use for the other party? New Invitees can now register and accept accept with an email address of their choice. Simple!

Help? Other Questions?
You can email us at support@contractual.ly or follow us on Twitter at @contractually.

Contractually Visits La Belle Province

Martin’s slides are posted at Slideshare, and the full roster of startups who presented is worth checking out.

Picture Your Strategy: Interview with Susan Low of Directis

We love to sing Contractually’s praises, but our tune would be off-key without our members’ voices. We’re interviewing our members to find out who they are, what they do, and how Contractually helps them.

We caught up with Susan Low, the founder and principal consultant of Directis Consulting. Directis provides strategic planning tools and consulting services for business leaders seeking dramatic improvement.

“A picture is worth a thousand words: we help small businesses run better by putting on visual planning retreats. For businesses with one or two owners, it’s really about creating an “anti-chaos” solution. For larger businesses (say, with 25 employees), it’s about the whole management team confirming the company vision and prioritizing major actions.” -Susan Low

How did you get into doing consultation for small businesses?
I started freelancing in 1995 while I was still doing my undergrad. I then started a web design company, sold it and got my MBA. My context growing up was always small businesses, so I wanted to apply my education in strategic planning and competitive strategy to that setting. I started Directis in 2003 with help from Douglas College Self Employment Program and have been running it ever since, and now we’re approaching our eighth year. Since our seventh birthday, I have been asking myself if I ever expected to get to seven years. Did I ever expect to be doing this in my mid-thirties? I don’t have the answer yet.

"I think Contractually has a lot to offer small business people – it’s a big step forward for me to be able to create contracts online. It gives me protection without seeming confrontational or too formal."

What does a typical client project look like?
We have two typical project outlines.The first is a visual planning retreat for a small business owned by one or two people who want to figure out an “anti-chaos” solution. It is essentially a one-day strategic planning retreat for one person. We send them questions in advance and identify their specific needs and concerns. We structure an agenda from pre-set modules. During the retreats, all of the work is done visually on whiteboards. I make graphic action plans that summarize to-do lists and the phases of work to be done over the next year. For one day retreats, we can make up to five 4 ft by 8 ft murals.

The other kind of project is with larger management teams, for businesses with six to 25 employees and annual revenue of $250,000 and $2 million. I create the agenda and facilitate strategic planning. We take five to 12 employees on a visual retreat, where they identify their top priorities and challenges. We help them to confirm their vision and prioritize major actions, usually for a two-year time frame.

What impact do you aim to have on your clients?
What I’m hoping to do is give people skills to analyze their environment in a strategic way, so they can streamline their process and eventually do it for themselves. Using graphics in our workshops brings creativity and meeting productivity. When people see what they’re talking about and have it drawn out in front of them, it gets the conversation moving along and people don’t repeat themselves nearly as often. They can track where the conversation has gone. I often use templates, so people don’t feel the need to jump ahead since they can see that we’ll get there eventually.

Why did you start using Contractually?
I found out about it on Twitter. It was a tweet from Raul Pacheco, @hummingbird 604. I followed the link because I was about to start doing a letter of agreement. I used to mail out my agreements with a big block at the end that said “sign here.” Usually people wouldn’t even fax it back, so I wasn’t getting a contract in place! When I saw Contractually, I thought it was a good way of stepping up my business management and my protection with my clients. Yes, I draw with markers all day, but I also want to build processes for my business that make it sustainable.

What kind of issues did you encounter with contracts before using Contractually?
People didn’t view my letters as contracts, so there wasn’t that awareness that a contract was being formed, with delivery of services and payment being agreed upon. Using Contractually raises people’s awareness that this is a professional business and that I should be taken seriously.

What surprised you about Contractually?
Initially, I was surprised by the fact that it was free. Another great surprise was how easy the signature part was. I thought I would have to download all this fancy stuff on my computer to get a digital signature, but Contractually just has a button. It is very accessible.

How did you introduce Contractually to your customers?
When they have agreed to book a retreat, I’ll say “Great! What I’m going to do is write up the contract using Contractually. You will be invited to the contract via a link in your email. Once that’s signed, we’ll be good to go.” The first person I used it with thought it went really smoothly. She didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary. No reaction is often the best reaction.

What impact has Contractually had on you?
It has given me a more disciplined way of going about the contracting process with my clients, which in the long-term is part of building sustainable business processes. Directis isn’t a consulting firm based on Susan Low; it has other associates and long term growth strategy. I think Contractually has a lot to offer small business people – it’s a big step forward for me to be able to create contracts online. It gives me protection without seeming confrontational or too formal.

Series Seed Financing Documents now on Contractually

As part of our mission to make contracts easy for startups, we’ve added the Series Seed documents to Contractually, so you can get a seed financing deal done online with all parties, from start to signature.

Everyone is in the loop without headaches: we get rid of emailing Word documents through confusing threads, and the printing and faxing/scanning/couriering of the signed contract.

The Series Seed documents were created by Ted Wang, a partner at Fenwick & West, and are available on an open-source basis. Ted’s objective is to provide a “standardized set of documents that can be quickly and easily deployed for a seed investment: to help get a company financed properly, legally, quickly and intelligently.” ‘Nuff said.

In addition to using the Series Seed documents in the Contractually application, you can also view them in our Resources area:

Series Seed Term Sheet v 2.0

Series Seed Stock Purchase Agreement (SPA)

Series Seed Investors’ Rights Agreement (IRA) v 2.0

Series Seed Certificate of Incorporation (COI) v 2.0

Making contracts easy for New Ventures BC participants

One of the things we hear when talking to founders and startups is the hassle they feel when dealing with contracts. We want to make that hassle go away, and maybe even make the process of making contracts… delightful.

We spoke to New Ventures BC about how Contractually could help the participants in the 2011 competition. New Ventures BC recognizes and fosters entrepreneurship in the BC technology sector. Its annual competitions provide education, mentorship and prize packages that support and accelerate new startups and help them get to the next level.

At Contractually, we get excited by new ideas and we have a soft spot for helping others getting their dreams off the ground. With that in mind, we’re delighted to support New Ventures BC by making a special offer to use Contractually to all companies in the 2011 competition, so they can start off on the right foot and make sure they have an easy way to get their contracts done.

Good luck to all the participants!

Update: Here’s what New Ventures BC had to say on its blog.

Food, Provenance & Contracts: Interview with Foodtree’s Anthony Nicalo

We think Contractually is pretty neat, but what do we know? We’re interviewing the people who matter, our members, to find out they think about Contractually and how they use it.

Our first interview is with Anthony Nicalo, co-founder and CEO of Foodtree. Anthony is an entrepreneur and a chef who has been involved in numerous sustainable food programs including Farmstead Wines, FarmFed and Inevitable Table. Foodtree uses web and mobile applications to create a global database of local food that brings transparency and democracy to our food system.

“Food is one of those things that isn’t optional. Food is the glue of humanity. I worked in my grandfather’s garden as soon as I could walk and I grew up cooking with my grandmother. I’m not a foodie. I’ve cooked in Michelin-starred restaurants and I can make fussy food, but it’s not something that interests me. I think of food as a must-have, not a nice-to-have.” —Anthony Nicalo

Why did you start Foodtree?

It stemmed from a small wine company that I founded called Farmstead Wines. We wanted to tell the story of each farmer we worked with, because wine just tastes better when you’re sitting around the table with people who made it. Most wine marketing is bullshit. How could we use technology to communicate what is actually in the bottle, in a way that isn’t totally overwhelming? I thought of a New Zealand company called Icebreaker that tracked each wool item back to the sheep that it came from. That’s what we needed for Farmstead Wines.

Anthony Nicalo

How did you get started?

I sent an email to Boris Mann, the co-founder of Bootup Labs, in May 2009 and asked if he had some time to meet. I had an idea. He really liked it and told me I should keep working on it. I spoke to people in the fishing industry who were trying to do the same thing for fish. I convinced a friend from soccer, Derek Shanahan, who had previously built online communities, to hop on board. I met our founding CTO at a Slow Money Alliance Conference in New Mexico. By the Fall of 2009, we had built a prototype, which was initially called ProvenanceID, and we applied to join Bootup Labs. By December 2009 we had changed the name to Foodtree and the founders had moved to Vancouver.

When did you start using Contractually?

I started using the first version in private beta in 2010. It didn’t have e-signatures, something I really wanted, but I used Contractually’s forms to create my contracts. I started using the public beta — with e-signatures — in March of 2011.

How did you get contracts done before you started using Contractually?

We would either have a template, have an attorney give us a copy of a previously-used document and then make some adjustments, or try the old “Google this issue” trick to try and find something. We’d email back and forth, and sign paper documents.

What kind of issues did you encounter with contracts before using Contractually?

There were no immediate issues, but it is the sort of thing that you don’t realize until it is too late. As your company grows and more money is involved, there are bound to be legal issues. Our attorney doesn’t really care about organizing our consulting agreements or intellectual property assignments. However, if we ever wanted to sell company or get investment, we need to be able to immediately hand them all over.

What sort of contracts do you need to get done for Foodtree? Which of these have you made using Contractually?

We mainly use it for consulting agreements and intellectual property assignments. We have used the IP assignment when the consultant had their own contract and we didn’t feel it the IP transfer was clear, so we did up a separate one.

What impact has Contractually had on you?

Initially, I liked the idea of Contractually more than how it worked. There were formatting issues and you couldn’t e-sign, so you still had to do editing and negotiation through email or in person. Now, with the addition of e-signatures, I’m excited when I have a new contract to do: as opposed to thinking “Oh shit, paperwork!”, I can just pull up a form and get it done all to way to signing.

What’s been the best part of using Contractually?

Actually getting contracts done. It’s no longer a hassle or an afterthought. It’s actually a tool that I use to get contracts done before work starts, so we can set expectations in relationships. It defines everything clearly. Contracts were often something that happened as an afterthought, but now we put a contract in place before we start working. After the contract is done, the scope of work is much more clearly defined and the working relationship is stronger.

If you were to recommend Contractually to someone who hadn’t heard of it before, how would you describe Contractually?

It makes it easy to get contracts done, organized, negotiated and signed. The benefits of these features have been obvious to everyone that I have recommended it to so far.

Editing your Contract Using the Contract Editor

Wondering how you can edit your contracts in Contractually? Here’s a quick intro to the contract editor and how you can edit your contract, either in visual mode (WYSIWYG) or in source mode (HTML markup).

1) Contract editor in visual (WYSIWYG) mode: When you click the “Edit Contract Text” button:

you’ll see your contract in edit mode.

Starting a Contract and Picking a Form

Humbled and Stoked

As the Vancouver tech community is well aware, the Lean Startup Conference is going on right now and bringing together entrepreneurs and technical smarties for two days of learning and networking.

Part of the event involved an attendee-voted Next Big Thing award, and we’re really excited that Contractually was picked as the winner.

We’re excited that what we’re doing connects with some of the very people we want to serve: other startups. And we’re humbled to have been picked from over a dozen compelling, exciting startups that are also getting their vision off the ground.

Being called the next big thing is a bit daunting. Looks like we have our work cut out for us!

Springing Forward: Custom Forms and Document Fingerprints