DocuSign Board Evolution

Today we announced 3 fantastic additions to the DocuSign Board - Docker chairman and CEO Steve Singh, former GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving and IBM Watson GM Inhi Cho Suh. I can assure you that this is not a 'shakeup', but a planned evolution for the company. So, to answer many of your questions, I wanted to share my perspective.

In late 2002, a sequence of events made it obvious to me that the world needed to transition from paper-based contracts and agreements to electronic ones. Just as we evolved from stone tablets to paper, we needed to evolve from paper to digital bits. And we had an idea nobody was thinking of at the time.

The existing providers were on the wrong track with complicated software. We were fortunate enough to have had a vision of a new solution that leveraged the reach of the internet, the ubiquity of the browser, and delivered a solution that was 10x better than the paper mess we were replacing.

Our answer was the cloud based electronic signature, and by focusing on making it simple and familiar we started a revolution called DocuSign. As we gained traction, we learned from our customers and advanced the service well beyond just signing into a complete digital transaction platform that has the best ROI of any enterprise application many companies have ever deployed. Today DocuSign is a public company with a market cap measured in multiple billions, +400K happy paying customers around the world using our service in more than 30 languages.

Perhaps the most amazing thing today about DocuSign is the future! The System of Agreement is a roadmap of opportunity to deliver on a vision of a completely digital conversation from inception to smart contract execution that can dramatically extend the value we bring today! There is so much room to grow, and so much opportunity for innovation. I know we will continue to delight customers for years to come.

Today we announced that I will be coming off the DocuSign Board at the end of the year. Not because I think the journey is over, but because my focus in life has shifted to early stage technology company investing. I will continue to share DocuSign ideas with Dan and the team, and will also be working with exciting new technology companies looking to achieve the kind of success we have seen at DocuSign. I’ve always said that starting a new company is the scariest, but most fun you can possibly have. If you know of one, let me know at Seven Peaks Ventures!

Finally, I am incredibly proud of all the people who contributed to our journey. It took years of hard work from many people to advance our company, and create this category. It has not been an easy journey, but it is incredibly rewarding seeing the global impact we have all had from our hard work. So, to all who have worked here, and to all current employees, thank you!

TG