I appreciate that, and you're right that overcoming the cold start problem is the key to establishing a standard. We've tried to learn what we can from how YC published the SAFE, as well as other standard contracts like the NVCA model docs, IAB standard terms, ISDA master agreement, etc.
For us, it's about providing day 1 value to the users of the contracts that does not depend on the agreements already being widely adopted. One example of that is our Stripe integration, which enables our customers to automatically bill their customers once they sign a contract. This uses the information already in their contracts, and it saves a lot of manual work and helps them get paid faster, and is separate from the negotiation benefits.
The other thing I'll point out is that our users have been seeing more success in using the standard contract from when we released our original NDA. Instead of losing an arm wrestling match because they have less leverage, they can say something like, "We adopted this standard agreement created by a committee of attorneys." That doesn't work every time, but we've seen some companies cut the percentage of their deals on customer paper in half.
We've seen a big range of reactions from attorneys. While we have some big supporters (and committee members) at law firms, we've gotten more traction with in-house counsel. I think it's at least partially because of the reasons you outlined. I do hope to get all the law firms on board as a channel eventually, but for now, we're focusing our energy on the companies themselves.
Yea definitely makes sense to me that you're concentrating on the company's experience! It's also such a massive market (just like, all companies), that there's an insane amount of room to grow, even without tackling the david vs goliath problem.
For us, it's about providing day 1 value to the users of the contracts that does not depend on the agreements already being widely adopted. One example of that is our Stripe integration, which enables our customers to automatically bill their customers once they sign a contract. This uses the information already in their contracts, and it saves a lot of manual work and helps them get paid faster, and is separate from the negotiation benefits.
The other thing I'll point out is that our users have been seeing more success in using the standard contract from when we released our original NDA. Instead of losing an arm wrestling match because they have less leverage, they can say something like, "We adopted this standard agreement created by a committee of attorneys." That doesn't work every time, but we've seen some companies cut the percentage of their deals on customer paper in half.
We've seen a big range of reactions from attorneys. While we have some big supporters (and committee members) at law firms, we've gotten more traction with in-house counsel. I think it's at least partially because of the reasons you outlined. I do hope to get all the law firms on board as a channel eventually, but for now, we're focusing our energy on the companies themselves.