Anvil - Document SDK

Always, love meeting people at Lenny's Newsletter Happy Hours. We had great attendance! Over 50 people, mostly product managers. This is probably the 6th or 7th time Anvil - Document SDK has hosted one of these happy hours in cities across the US (SF, Denver, NYC), it's always great meeting new people and seeing familiar faces. Here's to more in-person connections in 2025! ??

Would you build an email service from scratch? "If it is not what makes me special, is it really the best for me to build it?" Karen French SVP LendKey Technologies, Inc. shares insights on when to #build vs #buy software, on the Anvil - Document SDK Build vs Buy Podcast. Full episode links ?? Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g8bqQdHa Apple: https://lnkd.in/g5CcimXr YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g8yC5JWM

"It is really high risk to spend potentially years building that from scratch to learn...that you were wrong" Karen French SVP of #Product at LendKey Technologies, Inc. Sometimes it make sense to build from scratch but there is always an associated risk, and you must always consider if it's a risk worth taking. More insightful discussion from Karen in the full podcast episode ?? Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g8bqQdHa Apple: https://lnkd.in/g5CcimXr YouTube:?https://lnkd.in/g8yC5JWM

One of the best ways to get insights for a #product is to first be a customer. Karen French SVP of Product at LendKey Technologies, Inc. was a customer of LendKey for years at multiple roles. Now she is responsible for setting the product direction of a company that has originated over $7B of student loans. Learn about how Karen went from using LendKey at Customers Bank to running the show! Links to the episode below ?? Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g8bqQdHa Apple: https://lnkd.in/g5CcimXr YouTube:?https://lnkd.in/g8yC5JWM

Now with Anvil - Document SDK you can draft custom documents to be used in your application. Introducing Anvil's Dynamic Document Editor (beta) Draft a new document template with variables and clauses that can be dynamically included in the final document. Use the template over API or in other Anvil products. Perfect for: - Contracts / Agreements - Enabling specific clauses based on context - Offer letters - NDAs Or any other kind of document that includes a lot of language ( ??♂? a template #PDF form) Sign up today to try it out! https://www.useanvil.com/ https://lnkd.in/gD2K88fq

Had a wonderful conversation with Graham McNicoll, founder and CEO at GrowthBook, about how companies always seem to wind up building their own AB testing system, and why that is exactly the wrong place to be investing engineering resources. Graham built the AB testing system at Education.com, which eventually led him to start Growthbook (YC W22). Growthbook is a perfect example of how fuzzy the lines can be between #Build vs #Buy. They offer both an #opensource version as well as a paid hosted version. So you could totally "not BUY and kind of Build" if you wanted to make life difficult for yourself ?? . Links to the full episode below ?? Youtube: https://lnkd.in/g8U8Scr4 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gJg659AK Apple: https://lnkd.in/gWtYkEED Anvil - Document SDK #BuildvBuy

On Profiles in Risk - Ep. 605, I chat with Mang-Git Ng, Founder & CEO at Anvil Foundry, the fastest way to build software for documents. They provide developers, product teams, and non-technical people the tools to take their existing documents and convert them into programmable, online, simple, guided workflows. They offer PDF Generation, PDF Filling, e-signature, and more. LINK TO THE SHOW IN THE FIRST COMMENT! #Insurance #Insurtech #ProfilesInRisk

This week in terrible forms...(but at least there is now an actual form) I present the Election 83b form! If you are a #founder, you need to file an Election 83b after incorporating, because #taxes. (not financial advice, but go "Google it", or "Perplexity it" is it a verb yet?) Historically, you just made up your own format and mailed two copies of it to the #IRS. Now there is an actual IRS form ?? ?? But...as with all IRS forms, the instructions run longer than the form. A 1 page form will almost certainly have multiple pages of instructions, #efficiency ?? P.S. if you need the form https://lnkd.in/gFrdXp_J

This week in spooky terrible forms (#pdfs) ?? I present to you.... The #FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) PDF application - yes I know they have a web application as well, but that is not without its own spooky troubles ?? which likely attributed to lower college enrollment numbers this year. Just a taste of what makes the FAFSA form challenging. ?? It is 22 pages long (first 6 pages are instructions) ??? Almost every field is one of those "boxes per letter" type fields ? How many high school students know if they filed a 1040 or 1040-NR? ?? How many adults know what an #IRS 1040 or 1040-NR is? ?? It is 22 pages long (last 2 pages are "Notes") Go take a look for yourself: https://lnkd.in/gUtNrK-6 It's important PDF #forms like this that remind me why we are building Anvil - Document SDK. PDFs present a real accessibility (in all senses of the word) issue.

Ever set up an e-signature packet? If so, you know they can be super time consuming. We at Anvil - Document SDK built AI to set them up for you in seconds ?. The AI will spot fields, then detect & assign signers to each field. Check out me setting up this NDA in just a few clicks ?? It works with any document, even Word docs and PDFs exported from Google Docs. It will: ? Find fields on the document ? Group fields like names, addresses, and radio groups ? Find signers on the document ? Connect all those fields to signers, even the fields that need to be filled #AI #DocumentAI #WorkflowAutomation