Retail insights and ecommerce mystery shopper platform Humii combines cutting-edge technology with real human analysis to help brands deliver a superior online shopping experience. When Humii needed a secure way to send sensitive files with investors, they started using DocSend to store, control, and track documents.

They found it so effective that they expanded their use, leveraging DocSend for day-to-day business operations, like sharing confidential reports with customers.

The challenge

When Humii started raising capital, they faced the same challenge as many startups – the company needed a way to share sensitive investor documents. Email wasn’t secure enough, and Google Drive didn’t look professional. The Humii team needed a solution that could control access to investor material, so that no one could download sensitive files and potentially send them to unsecure, external third-parties.

It's been a real game changer for us, moving away from sharing files via email and Google Drive. The ability to track clearly who accessed which files and how engaged they are with each of them has improved our end-to-end fundraising process .

Andy Evans

Co-Founder, Humii

The solution

Humii started using DocSend’s virtual data room to control access to all investor documents, including sensitive financial information that shouldn’t be shared freely. After seeing success with investors, the team at Humii expanded DocSend’s capabilities to include secure file sharing with prospects and customers, from pre-sales documents to crucial data reports.

Controlling investor materials in DocSend’s virtual data room

When creating a personalized virtual data room to create a unique experience for each venture capital firm, Andy can easily pull in all his investor documents from his desktop or external storage provider, and protect them with a one-click non-disclosure agreement (NDA). DocSend makes securely sharing documents easy for business owners like Andy, who can easily have investors sign an NDA before accessing material through Humii’s custom data room. DocSend’s document analytics gave Andy valuable insight into which content investors were engaging with most.

This data enabled him to have more compelling client conversations and tailor his follow-up calls accordingly. With DocSend, Andy was able to protect investor memorandums and glean valuable insights, like the fact that investors were engaging most with the company’s financials.

The virtual data room is a great way to control access, so that people can't just download a document and send it out to thousands of people. We can clearly see who has access, which is incredibly useful.

Andy Evans

Co-Founder, Humii

Narrowing down the sales funnel with DocSend’s engagement metrics

With DocSend, Humii has improved their sales process with dedicated client portals for each prospect. When that prospect becomes a customer, they continue to access all files going forward within the same client portal — a seamless onboarding process. “It was really a frictionless evolution for our customers,” Andy shared. He went on, “When we first pitch to a customer, we share details in their client portal on how our reports can improve their businesses, as well as information on pricing. Once they become a client, they can access all of their information in the same portal.”

When sales teams send out pricing information and explainer decks to prospects, they can see which parts of a document the prospect has engaged with the most.

Seeing when people are browsing through the document means you know they skimmed the data before you’re sitting in front of them. You know they have some context, which tells you what leads care about before your meeting even starts.

Andy Evans

Co-Founder, Humii

Protecting sensitive information in DocSend’s client portals

As part of their service to customers, Humii sends performance reports that contain sensitive information about each brand’s online shopping experience. Every report contains a score for each stage of the customer lifecycle and recommendations for improvement.

Humii has set up client portals for each customer, so that all reports are secure and centralized. When a customer wants to compare previous performance reports with a current one, all documents are easy to find in one centralized access point. With DocSend data rooms, there’s no risk that customer reports will get into the wrong hands.

If your business isn’t performing well, that’s not something you want your competitors to know. At a previous company, I've seen that type of thing go horribly wrong with getting the wrong data sent to the wrong customer, and DocSend prevents that from happening.

Andy Evans

Co-Founder, Humii

The post Humii locks down sensitive investor and customer documents with DocSend appeared first on DocSend.

Hodde Bros launched in the early 1900s as America’s first Budweiser distributor, but their focus shifted to soda when Prohibition hit just a few years later. In 2014, Darci Kendall (the founder’s great-granddaughter) relaunched the family business as a beverage catering company. Nearly 100 years later, Hodde Bros is now a full scale cocktail catering company based in Santa Monica, California, known for its delicious craft cocktails, Airstream bar, and virtual happy hours. Today, Hodde Bros relies on Dropbox and DocSend to securely store files and gather detailed prospect insights throughout the sales process. 

The challenge: 

Prior to using DocSend, Darci Kendall, Founder & Creative Director at Hodde Bros, was overwhelmed with countless leads that were difficult to turn into deals. Without a reliable way to prioritize prospect inquiries and needing strategic insights on how to better prioritize her time, Darci felt like she was drowning in creating proposals. 

The solution: 

Darci had already been an avid Dropbox user for years, using it to sync all of her creative and client files in one centralized place. She then turned to another Dropbox product, DocSend, to securely share finalized proposals with new business opportunities. DocSend’s advanced analytics inform Darci’s follow-up strategy to prioritize the right prospects and close deals faster. 

Keeping a small and rapidly growing business running with Dropbox Backup

Running the day-to-day operations of a small business is no easy feat. With endless paperwork to manage, proposals to send, and contracts to track, founders juggle multiple responsibilities. Making sure all critical business documents are securely stored and instantly accessible is fundamental to a stress-free workflow and is critical to closing business quicker. 

This is precisely why, for years, Darci has relied on Dropbox to securely store all her business files. 

Dropbox holds my business life. I think I joined Dropbox when it first came out. It was the best and I just never left. We grew together and all the capabilities that we needed were there. I can access all of my files from any device and instantly sync to the cloud.

Darci Kendall

Founder, Hodde Bros

Securely sharing sales proposals with potential clients using DocSend

Renting out an Airstream mobile bar is one of Hodde Bros’ main service offerings. Their website offers detailed documentation regarding specs and layouts, which is all housed in an easy-to-access DocSend link. 

When interested visitors reach out requesting more information, Darci sends over an email with a DocSend link. Darci has more controls over her files with DocSend’s advanced security controls. With DocSend, Darci has the option to apply a passcode, set an expiration date, and allow downloading on any proposal. When Darci makes an update to content, she can easily change the file in DocSend and the updates will automatically appear to prospects on all links, without any cumbersome notifications. This allows Darci to put her best professional foot forward and makes the sales process seamless for both her and potential new clients.

Uncovering leads with DocSend’s document analytics

A key part of being a small team is learning which leads to follow and which ones to abandon. It was a strategic decision (one that is common in the events industry) to not list prices on the website. This usually leads to more leads coming in – and Hodde Bros was overwhelmed with requests. 

Although Darci was excited by the outpouring of interest, she was having a hard time prioritizing prospects and following up with leads who were actually interested. Drowning in requests without any way to prioritize left Darci feeling overwhelmed and in need of a solution. That’s when she turned to DocSend. 

I felt like I was spending way too much time creating endless proposals without landing any jobs. I had no way of knowing if a prospect was even looking at my proposal, let alone at which sections and for how long. DocSend was part of a suite of tools I put in place to help filter through all the incoming leads, and the visibility I get with document analytics is huge.

Darci Kendall

Founder, Hodde Bros

Armed with x-ray vision into prospect engagement with her shared sales collateral, Darci can identify exactly which leads are a good use of her time. She can see who’s viewing and spending time with her proposals page-by-page, insights she simply didn’t have before DocSend. 

With DocSend document analytics, Darci has full visibility into when recipients have viewed or shared the files. Darci can effectively identify which leads are truly interested, and which would be dead-end deals.   

Informed follow-up strategy closes new business faster, powered by DocSend’s analytics

From sending proposals, to tracking prospect engagement, and identifying top-performing collateral, DocSend plays a critical role in Hodde Bros’ follow-up strategy. 

Since Hodde Bros creates custom proposals, it’s critical for Darci and her team to understand what content is performing best. With DocSend, she’s able to track prospect behavior far beyond the initial open. She can see exactly how effective her marketing is by drilling down into where viewers spend the most time. For example, if they spend time on a pricing page, she can assume that the customer is price-conscious and tailor her pitch accordingly. 

In the future, Darci is excited about using these analytics to inform how she speaks to specific verticals. “We want to focus on verticals like the film industry, wedding venues, golf courses, and more. I want each of those to have their own campaigns, and with DocSend I can learn so much more about the leads that I’m reaching out to within those verticals.”

Looking forward to the future: centralizing customer documents in DocSend’s client portal 

As Darci looks ahead to running more verticalized marketing campaigns, she’s excited to house all industry-specific content in a DocSend data room. 

“After checking out data rooms, all I can say is ‘WOW!’ I have so many ideas running through my head about how we can use it for future campaigns. It will be so useful and insightful.”

The post Hodde Bros relies on Dropbox and DocSend to build client relationships appeared first on DocSend.

Founded over a decade ago, a leading technology company’s mission is to empower Fortune 500 brands to engage with their customers through a variety of channels at the right moment. To share confidential files with customers and carry out policy agreements with employees, this company relies on DocSend to securely safeguard and organize documents.

The Challenge

Prior to DocSend, a Technical Security Manager at the company would send out employee security documents for eSignature using DocuSign, which was too costly and complex for a simple internal workflow. Additionally, the customer support team needed a more secure way of sharing sensitive documents with customers.

The Solution

The team turned to DocSend’s secure document sharing and eSignature solution to safeguard sensitive cybersecurity documents that would go out to both employees and customers.

Securely sharing sensitive documents with customers

When the company’s Technical Security Manager was first introduced to DocSend three years ago, the platform was used as a tool by customer support representatives to securely share sensitive information with customers. Technical support representatives would regularly interact with customers over email, sometimes sending over sensitive information about internal company security procedures. “We needed a safe way to easily turn on and off link access to ensure that the right information was being sent to the right individuals,” the manager shared. With DocSend, customer support representatives are able to safely send out sensitive materials regarding company policies with individual customers and control access to the documents for a defined period of time. This way, employees can securely control their company’s privacy and know exactly who is accessing internal Service Organization Control (SOC 2) reports – information that highlights how the company protects customer data. 

DocSend’s robust document tracking and analytics provides more visibility and flexibility beyond just sharing a link on Google Drive.

Technical Security Manager

Customer Engagement Technology Platform

Sometimes, customer support needs to share files on a support portal with customers that contain sensitive information about customer data. By hosting these documents in DocSend, customers can enter in a protected password and customer support representatives can be at ease that the documents are secure. The added layer of security in DocSend builds trust between the company and its customers. “If a customer needs a custom support solution, our support team will upload it to support folders and only share sensitive info with that customer,” the manager shares. DocSend provides both the company’s employees and customers with reassurance that their documents are protected from unauthorized parties. 

Switching over from DocuSign to simplify employee onboarding

As someone who manages the security policies and practices at the organization, the Technical Security Manager at the company wanted to explore other ways he could use DocSend within his own role. Cybersecurity touches every level of the business, including legal, human resources, IT, and customer support. Particularly, all new employees need to sign an internal cybersecurity policy package upon onboarding, as well as update their signature yearly. The Technical Security Manager thought DocSend could provide a simpler way to collect signed employee policy documents.

When you’re onboarded as a new hire or contractor, you sign an internal policy document in DocSend. I can track who has signed our security policies that are needed for yearly audits. It’s one less thing that human resources has to worry about.

Technical Security Manager

Customer Engagement Technology Platform

Previously, the company’s technical security team was relying on DocuSign, which was too cumbersome of a solution for their needs. “There were too many overwhelming options and too many permissions, when I needed to collect basic employee signatures. The user interface and user experience was too much in DocuSign and it made it hard for me to keep track of who signed our policy documents,” the manager recalled. With DocuSign, the team needed to pay an additional license fee to access the software, which was too costly for the basic eSignature functionality they needed. However, the team realized they could instead try out DocSend’s eSignature feature, which was already included in their existing DocSend plan. They were already DocSend users, securely sharing documents with customers, so it made sense to give the software a try for its eSignature capability. 

I can’t speak highly enough about DocSend. With multi-party eSignature, I can track in real time who has viewed and signed our documents. This insight cuts down on me having to ask HR about who's signed what or having to chase down signatures.

Technical Security Manager

Customer Engagement Technology Platform

A seamless and cost-effective multi-party eSignature solution to track cybersecurity policy documents

After trying out DocSend’s eSignature , the technical security team was impressed by how easy it was to securely send documents across the business. “As soon as you guys said you had multi-party eSignature, I knew it was time to stop using DocuSign,” the Technical Security Manager shared. Unlike DocuSign, DocSend is intuitive to use and has everything the team needs to collect over three-hundred employee signatures on internal policy documents. “Every year, we are audited and are required to provide yearly company-wide signatures on our data retention policy. DocSend’s multi-party eSignature lets us show auditors that we take our privacy seriously. We can even show the exact timestamp an employee signed an agreement,” the Technical Security Manager shared. The technical security team at the company is able to track who has signed documents and ensure that the company is compliant with strict cybersecurity policies. 

Looking forward to the future: improving onboarding and customer experiences

The technical security team at the company will use DocSend to improve onboarding as his company continues to grow. Next year, they hope to unify policy cover sheets using a third-party system to maintain version control. Additionally, the customer support team will continue to send sensitive information to customers with confidence knowing their documents are protected with passwords and expiring links in DocSend. As the Technical Security Manager shared, “My own team and our support teams have been really excited about DocSend and I can only see this continuing to grow as we scale in the future.”

The post A leading B2B technology company collects policy agreements with DocSend’s multi-party eSignature appeared first on DocSend.

Bringing investors on board with SAFE agreements

DocSend launched multi-party eSignature just as the Flow team was garnering serious interest from individual investors. As Chris Boncimino, Co-Founder of Flow Networks, puts it, “DocSend came through for us in the nick of time. We were managing investment documents with DocSend data rooms when we realized we were going to need eSignature capabilities to bring investors on board. Right when we needed it most, DocSend released its two-way eSignature feature, which allowed us to do even more with the software we already loved.” By adopting eSignature, Chris and the Flow team knew they’d be deepening their use of DocSend to match the company’s expansion: “DocSend has a natural unfolding of capabilities that has kept pace with our own growth. As we’ve become more sophisticated, so has our use of DocSend.”

We realized we were going to need eSignature capabilities to bring investors on board. When DocSend released its eSignature feature, it allowed us to do even more with software we already loved.

Chris Boncimino

Co-Founder, Flow Networks

During their friends and family raise, Chris and his team positioned eSignature at the endpoint of their investor outreach strategy. As Chris explains, “The friends and family round involves a lot of conversations with a lot of people. We’d schedule 3-4 chats with potential investors, and during the last of these we’d ask if they’d like us to send over additional information, including our SAFE template.” Whenever an investor showed high intent, Chris leaned on DocSend to send and sign an executable, personalized SAFE note with investment terms.

How the Flow team gets SAFEs signed with DocSend

Chris has a well-developed, repeatable process in place to get his SAFEs executed. After an investor says they’re ready to come on board, Chris customizes a SAFE template with the investor’s name, investment amount, and discount rate. Then, Chris uploads that SAFE PDF to DocSend and embeds the necessary fields for each signer using DocSend’s multi-party eSignature capability. “DocSend covers us through the entire fundraising process. Investors view our pitch deck and all financial documents in DocSend, so when it comes time to close our deal, e-signing SAFEs with DocSend allows for a seamless experience.”

From simple presentations, to eSignature, to data rooms, DocSend has transformed the way we interact with investors and VCs who are looking at us.

Chris Boncimino

Co-Founder, Flow Networks

Once the SAFE notes are uploaded and all the fields set, Chris creates a DocSend link and embeds the link in an email template that he personalizes for each investor. Once the SAFE template is executed by all parties, Chris opens Flow’s data room for that investor.

From e-Signing SAFEs to accessing the investor Data Room

As Chris explains, DocSend’s eSignature feature is closely tied to the team’s data room. This is because the Flow team sees eSignature as both a tool for fundraising and for strengthening relationships. “Once we get that signed SAFE note back from an investor, we know they’re now part of the Flow family and we can immediately open our Investor Data Room to them.” The Flow data room contains every document an investor has already seen through the fundraising process, plus materials from quarterly meetings and press about the company. “Our data room brings all investors together in one well-organized place. DocSend’s eSignature tool is the key that unlocks the door to this room.”

Our data room brings all investors together in one well-organized place. DocSend’s eSignature tool is the key that unlocks the door to this room.

Chris Boncimino

Co-Founder, Flow Networks

E-signing beyond fundraising

DocSend’s eSignature feature is more than just a fundraising tool for Flow Networks. When onboarding new hires, for example, Chris and the Flow team use eSignature to sign employment agreements. They also use it for documents that safeguard mission-critical information, such as NDAs. “DocSend’s eSignature feature worked so well for us with SAFEs that we integrated it into other aspects of our business,” explains Chris. From pre- to post-fundraise, the Flow Networks team relies on DocSend as they help a growing number of businesses upgrade their payment experiences.

The post From pitch decks to signing SAFE notes, Flow Networks uses DocSend as its full-circle fundraising platform appeared first on DocSend.

Zazuu is a money transfer platform that helps people avoid unknown hidden fees when sending money to Africa. Zazuu is a growing startup that relies on DocSend to raise funds, as they focus on their mission to make sending money across borders more intuitive and accessible to Africans, wherever they are in the world.

The Challenge

Prior to DocSend, Kay Akinwunmi, Co-Founder and CEO, would send out his pitch deck to hundreds of potential investors as an email attachment. But needing to continuously make changes to his deck and wanting more peace of mind on the distribution of his deck, Kay wanted to find a more secure sharing solution that would provide him more security, visibility, and insights.

The Solution:

Kay turned to DocSend’s secure document sharing solution to more strategically manage outreach and follow-up to potential investors.

Creating pitch deck changes in one click

Time is everything to a founder. When working with limited time and resources, especially in the early days of a startup, founders need to efficiently prioritize activities that will have maximum impact.

For Kay Akinwunmi, his experience was no different. While growing his early-stage venture, a platform that makes transfering money across borders a better experience for customers, Kay wanted to more effectively communicate with potential investors. “Before using DocSend, I had been sending my deck manually as an old school PDF to loads of people and we had no visibility into if they viewed it and who was potentially interested. Our deck, company narrative, and numbers were constantly changing. It was very hard to manage who had which version, and it was not the most respectful to go back to those investors and share an updated version,” Kay shared. In addition to managing version control errors with potential investors, Kay needed valuable time back in his day. Manually emailing hundreds of potential investors with updates was not a sustainable solution.

When Kay first heard about DocSend, he immediately understood the value it could have on his day to day and was excited to gain more control over the fundraising process. “DocSend has been extremely helpful with revisions. We can make an instant change to our deck and now that every single person has the latest version straightaway,” Kay mentioned. He has saved countless hours and consolidated what previously was multiple versions of his pitch deck into one intuitive, up-to-date version.

DocSend has given us peace of mind that we can update our deck and know that anyone who opens a link will have the latest version. As a founder, that is very powerful; to have the confidence that we can control the slides and our company narrative, and know that people are never sitting with an outdated version.

Kay Akinwunmi

Co-Founder and CEO, Zazuu

Increased visibility into investor interest

Kay also wanted to more effectively prioritize his investor wishlist, going after the right investors who were most interested in his product. “Before DocSend, we would send our deck to dozens of investors. It was tough to then prioritize next steps because you did not know who was opening these emails much less looking at our deck,” Kay recalled.

Now, armed with DocSend’s document analytics, Kay is having a completely different experience. Instead of waiting for an email response, Kay can proactively know whether potential investors are interested in his company before they reach out. “I love receiving  notifications that investors are viewing my deck. Tracking investor activity in real-time helps me know when to reach out to them, what part of the deck they’re most interested in, and therefore, where to focus my conversation,” he shared. Kay can take charge and prioritize the right investors to spend time pursuing.

For example, when Kay was engaging with the CEO of a venture capital firm, he sent his DocSend pitch deck link via WhatsApp and he did not receive a reply. While a lack of response would have been a cause for concern without DocSend, Kay slowly learned that the VC firm was indeed very interested in his company. “The CEO was in Portugal at the time and over the weekend I noticed the same link I had sent to him was opened in Dubai, Amsterdam, and all over the globe.” Picking up on the signal that the firm was reviewing his deck even days after sending his initial pitch, Kay remained hopeful, “This was invaluable information then knowing I should follow up. They are actually one of our investors now.”

Additionally, Kay has uncovered new investor opportunities through DocSend. “We’ve been able to identify new investors for Zazuu by seeing when our deck is forwarded onto someone else and they enter their email to view the pitch deck. I’ll follow-up with them and see if they have any questions,” Kay shared. By using DocSend’s analytics, Kay is able to grow his top of funnel and identify new, potentially interested investors.

DocSend has let us have conversations with investors that would not have otherwise happened through tracking our pitch deck link that has been forwarded to others.

Kay Akinwunmi

Co-Founder and CEO, Zazuu

Creating more meaningful conversations with investors

Time becomes even more critical for founders when they have to set-up meetings with potential investors. For Kay, these meetings provided a limited time period to share his company mission and vision in more color than a static deck can do. With DocSend, Kay can use his time with his investors most effectively because he goes into meetings knowing exactly what areas of his pitch deck investors spent the most time on. As Kay shares, “DocSend’s insights allowed us to have better control over the flow of the conversation with potential investors. I now maximize my time with potential investors knowing they have seen the deck and sometimes don’t even need to pitch to them during our meetings.” Instead of repeating information, Kay is able to dig into the finer details and go straight into answering questions. Appreciating more nuanced conversations with investors, Kay remarks, “DocSend has been really useful. There is not any other way to track VC activity on pitch decks and accelerate the conversations we are having with potential investors.”

Additionally, at the end of his pitch deck, he includes an additional DocSend link to a frequently asked questions presentation. Kay shares, “It was helpful for us to know when potential investors wanted to learn even more because it meant they were very interested.” Overall, DocSend provides visibility into potential investor activity and interest, allowing Kay to target and partner with the right people to make his dream of creating a fairer market for international financial transfers become a reality.

DocSend is a must have tool for an effective fundraising process. Uncovering DocSend insights can boost your confidence as a founder and even the playing field. It would have been very difficult for us to complete our pre-seed raise and get to where we are today without DocSend.

Kay Akinwunmi

Co-Founder and CEO, Zazuu

The post Zazuu narrows down a funnel of hundreds of investors with DocSend to raise their pre-seed round appeared first on DocSend.

Bond’s mission is to accelerate the pace of financial innovation and access to capital. Bond makes it easy for businesses to offer compliant financial products by making integration to often-antiquated banks and financial vendors more intuitive. Facing massive growth resulting in the need to rapidly hire, Bond relies on DocSend to securely share information with prospective job candidates during the interview and hiring process.

The Challenge

Prior to DocSend, Brittney Harvey, a Recruiter for Bond, would send out recruiting decks, as well as homework assignments for open roles, to job candidates as email attachments or Google Drive files. In a highly sensitive industry and competitive market, Brittney worried at times about information getting into the wrong hands. This led to a search for a more secure sharing solution for external documents during the hiring process.

The Solution:

The team turned to DocSend’s secure document sharing solution to safeguard sensitive presentations and case studies that were sent to candidates during the hiring process.

Controlling access to confidential documents with candidates

Building out the recruiting function at a growing startup is no small task. For Brittney, she wanted to make sure security and ease were top priorities, when sharing information with candidates. During the initial interview process at Bond, Brittney will send an overview deck that shares a bit about the company and the product. Sometimes, candidates could be interviewing with competitors or could be coming from similar industries, so it’s important for these product decks to stay safe and away from the wrong set of eyes.

It’s great that I can require an email address to view documents. If a DocSend link happens to get in the wrong hands and I see an unknown email address I can quickly delete access to that link.

Brittney Harvey

Recruiter, Bond

With DocSend, Britney is able to regain security and control of who is accessing company information. “I love the email notifications I get. I can cross-check to ensure candidates who are viewing documents are also listed in our applicant tracking system,” Brittney shared. If there is an update on a document Brittney needs to make after sending, she can easily make the fix one time and it automatically changes the version of the file. Therefore, Brittney knows she is always sending the most up-to-date version of her recruiting material.

Following-up with interested candidates at the right time

With the acceleration of remote work and increased flexibility of options for job-seekers, the hiring market is seeing a boost in applications like never before. For recruiters, following up with interested candidates at the right moment can make an incredible difference. Before using DocSend, Brittney had a difficult time determining which candidates were genuinely interested. With DocSend’s analytics, Brittney receives page-by-page analytics and notifications when someone is viewing a document that she has shared. Brittney can use this information to follow-up at the right moment. The sooner that Brittney can follow-up with a candidate when Bond is top-of-mind, the more likely she is to receive a positive response.

Honestly the job market is crazy right now. The quicker we are able to move, the quicker we are able to lock in great talent. Having a tool like DocSend is so vital for us to recruit competitively.

Brittney Harvey

Recruiter, Bond

Boosting candidate engagement rates by 25% and maintaining a fair hiring process

Once a candidate makes it through the initial recruiter screen, then they typically move on to a take-home assignment for some roles. Previously, Brittney shared the assignment with candidates as a Google document. However, she realized, “I was finding that I couldn’t keep track of who has or has not looked at that document.” Without the ability to track candidate engagement with the assignment, Brittney had a difficult time prioritizing which candidates to follow-up with.

Now with DocSend, Brittney can see if someone has recently spent time looking at the assignment. If someone hasn’t looked at the take-home assignment, Brittney can reach out to them and validate interest in the role. “DocSend has helped us raise the number of people responding to our take-home assignment by 25% because I was able to follow-up at the right moment.”

The added level of protection in DocSend prevents candidates from sharing assignments with others interested in the opening role. Brittney can set link expiration dates, as well as turn off the ability to download the assignment. By preventing the documents from being sent to others, Brittney is able to maintain a fair hiring process for all prospective candidates.

Analytics to help inform conversations with candidates

It can be challenging as a recruiter or as a hiring manager to know exactly how familiar a candidate is with your company, or anticipate what questions they might have, when walking into an interview. Just as a candidate wants to make a positive first impression, employers also want to put their best foot forward during the interview process to secure top talent.

Brittney and hiring managers at Bond are able to walk into each interview feeling prepared, knowing what about the company might interest candidates and where to anticipate questions. For example, before an interview, Brittney might see that a candidate has spent a longer period of time on the culture slide of the recruiting pitch deck, so she knows to emphasize these elements in her conversations with them. “Being able to see what the candidate is most interested in is so important. I’m able to inform other interviewers what areas to push on or what candidates might have questions about,” Brittney shared.

In a constantly fluctuating job market, it can be difficult to know where a candidate stands, especially when there might be other offers on the table. Knowing whether a top candidate is leaning towards signing an offer allows recruiters to know where to spend their time. For Brittney, she’s able to gauge candidate interest in the later stages of the hiring process with DocSend. “I love that I’m able to let hiring managers know the good news when a top candidate who has multiple offers checks out our material again. That means they’re still thinking about us and now might be a good time to give them a call and see if they have any questions.” Brittney uses DocSend as an early indicator to hiring managers of whether a candidate is likely to sign an offer letter.

If I see a candidate has spent a lot of time on a particular part of our recruiting pitch deck, like slides about culture or the technical details of our product, I use this to guide my conversation and decisions like who they should speak with next. The analytics really allow me to provide a more personalized candidate experience.

Brittney Harvey

Recruiter, Bond

Securely housing employee documents after onboarding with Dropbox

When new employees start at a company, human resources managers walk them through reviewing and signing many different onboarding documents. It’s crucial that human resources managers can rely on a secure, cloud platform to organize files and onboarding documents.

For Bond, when a new employee joins, human resource managers collect all new onboarding documents using Dropbox. “We use Dropbox to manage our employee documents: offer letters, signed agreements, and pretty much anything you can think of that you’ve signed as an employee.” Bond relies on Dropbox’s secure cloud file sync and storage capabilities to safely house all of their internal documents, so that the organization can effectively focus on their larger goals. “We really like how Dropbox organizes all of your files and how you can easily arrange folders. Our legal team relies on Dropbox to make sure that only the right people are accessing internal documents with password protection.” For a growing business like Bond, security and simplicity are critical for sharing files on-the-go.

At Bond, while recruiters rely on DocSend to safely share sensitive documents with candidates, the human resources team securely stores signed employee contracts in Dropbox. Both products together keep the People team at Bond moving, as they continue to grow and scale.

The post Bond optimizes their hiring and onboarding process with DocSend & Dropbox appeared first on DocSend.

Captain Experiences is a platform that unlocks the outdoors for everyone by making it seamless for people to book outdoor sports guides. Offering trips across the United States and beyond, Captain Experiences simplifies the stresses of planning a trip through streamlining reviews and providing excellent, insured guides for booking. Focused first on fishing across the U.S., Captain Experiences is rapidly expanding across all outdoor sports and geographies.

The Challenge

Prior to DocSend, Jonathan Newar, Co-Founder & CEO, would ask lawyers to collect signatures for NDAs and investor agreements on DocuSign. Their time was costly and “getting them to collect signatures would cost their business hundreds of dollars,” Jonathan shared. The team needed a more cost-effective solution to centralize external documents and collect eSignatures.

The Solution

The team turned to DocSend’s easy-to-use secure document sharing and eSignature solution that would grow and scale alongside Captain Experiences. “Not only is DocSend intuitive and easy to use but it also allows us to close deals faster,” Jonathan shared.

A $2 million seed fund and lasting partnership built through the DocSend Fundraising Network

When Jonathan was first testing out his pitch, he relied on the DocSend Fundraising Network for initial warm introductions to investors who align on investing in marketplaces and outdoor experiences. The initial introductions to investors helped Jonathan learn what was working and refine his pitch for future conversations. Eventually, these warm introductions led to securing a $2 million seed fundraise. The data-driven insights provided by DocSend’s Pitch Deck Analyzer helps founders like Jonathan best convey their mission and business objectives for pre-seed and seed funding rounds.

Through the DocSend Fundraising Network, we fielded multiple high-value intros to VC's excited about Captain Experiences. These intros led to relationships we continue to cultivate- hearing directly from VC's on traction benchmarks they're keying on allows us to firm up our fundraising strategy and our deck.

Jonathan Newar

Co-Founder & CEO, Captain Experiences

As a result of being part of the DFN, Jonathan secured his first institutional investor meetings that were critical to the early traction of Captain Experiences.  “It was fantastic to get access to warm introductions with DocSend early on in our growth,” Jonathan shared. The DFN introduced Jonathan to 8 VCs, which led to multiple meetings and follow-ups. “The DFN provided introductions to industry-leading, brand-name VCs that we otherwise would have had to reach out to cold or network tirelessly to connect with. We met with a handful of funds through the DFN and ended up signing with our lead investor,” Jonathan shared. These meetings were fundamental to the company’s early fundraising success and provided detailed feedback that helped Jonathan ultimately fundraise successfully. Additionally, a connection Jonathan made through the DFN made countless other introductions, which helped the team close their seed round.

The DFN provided data-driven feedback that was integral to improving investor views on subsequent versions of Jonathan’s pitch deck. While early slides on traction, team, business model, and “the ask” were in good shape, the data-driven feedback provided by DFN suggested that earlier versions of the pitch deck had too few product slides. Using those insights, Jonathan added a product roadmap slide to the appendix. “Thanks to DocSend analytics, I know that this is one of our most viewed slides and it gives us a chance to present our execution progress and future rollouts to investors,” Jonathan shared.

A more organized and secure way of reaching investors through seamless updates

When Jonathan was first beginning to reach out to investors, he would send out hundreds of emails each day. He knew there had to be a more streamlined approach to launching his business.

After speaking with a founder in Houston, Jonathan learned about how he could use DocSend to more easily manage and share versions of his pitch deck. As Jonathan began to use the product, he was able to seamlessly update pitch decks once in DocSend and make follow-up edits, even after they reached investors’ inboxes. With DocSend, Jonathan could protect sensitive information in his pitch deck by adding a passcode and email verification to ensure that the right investors can view his pitch deck.

Developing more meaningful relationships with investors through insights on pitch decks

Previously, Jonathan was relying on chance to determine whether he would follow-up with an investor. He did not have any insights into whether people were opening his decks, or what parts of his deck were most relevant to the conversations he was booking. Hoping to generate interest and financial backing for his company, Jonathan needed insights on his pitch decks to personalize his conversations with VC firms.

DocSend made all the difference. Jonathan sent a pitch deck out to a venture associate in DocSend and saw that the investor spent the most time on his slide that discussed unit economics. When Jonathan met with that associate, he prepared in advance using document analytics and catered the conversation to focus on unit economics, making it most relevant to that investor.

With DocSend’s insights and analytics, Jonathan was able to more effectively prioritize his time when reaching out to investors and was able to close funding from 15 investors.

Centralizing business agreements with a unified eSignature platform

Previously, Jonathan was paying an hourly fee to a lawyer who was managing Captain Experiences’ contracts through DocuSign; however, this was a costly use of a lawyer’s time – basically project managing signatures – and not sustainable in the long term. Once Jonathan engaged with DocSend for fundraising, he quickly realized he could use the multi-party eSignatures feature to streamline important contracts for his business.

Jonathan is now able to collect multiple signatures on NDAs, consulting agreements with contractors, and convertible note agreements with investors in an automated way without expensive oversight. When onboarding a new hire or contractor, DocSend allows Jonathan to easily send out an NDA and consulting agreement with the click of a button and manage the workflow from the tips of his fingers. Between managing offshore workers and marketing contractors in the United States, Jonathan relies on DocSend as a simple way to manage and unify all of his agreements. Additionally, DocSend’s eSignature solution was more cost effective than other platforms, helping Jonathan and his team improve their bottom-line.

Personalizing investor experiences with multi-party eSignature customization

The founder experience can be particularly challenging, especially when it comes to finding the right investor to join a pre-seed or seed round.

With eSignature, Jonathan is able to tailor each document to include a field for a name, date, or initials. Jonathan loves how the seamless user experience saves him time when creating documents that are sent out for eSignatures.

Multi-party eSignature has been one of the most useful features DocSend offers. We are able to send NDAs, onboard new consultants, fundraise, and close convertible notes all from one platform. It is especially critical when fundraising with many different parties involved-- that’s a lot of signatures to manage and DocSend streamlines the process.

Jonathan Newar

Co-Founder & CEO, Captain Experiences

For example, when Jonathan was preparing a document that was to be sent out for a signature, he noticed that DocSend pre-adjusted the sizing of the text field based on his previous preferences. As Jonathan shares, “The customizable fields are perfect and they fit all of my needs.”

DocSend has allowed Jonathan to customize document viewing experiences for all potential investors. Jonathan has total control every step of his journey sharing pitch decks, collecting eSignatures, and more as he continues to grow and scale Captain Experiences.

The post Captain Experiences Secures $2 Million in Seed Funding with DocSend’s Multi-Party eSignature appeared first on DocSend.

There is a shortlist of technologies I always bring with me to a new company and DocSend is no doubt one of those.

Matt Hammond

VP of Sales & Marketing, Campus

Prior to DocSend, Campus’ sales team was sending marketing content and sales proposals as attachments. This left a lot up for interpretation with no insight into how prospects or customers were engaging with their documents during a deal or negotiation.

When Matt and his team invested in DocSend, they were coached on how to think about document analytics and use this new insight to their advantage. “We quickly realized that insight into document consumption, like a sales proposal, can improve our sales results and deal velocity.”

“The moment I realized that DocSend was mission-critical was when we sent out a 7-figure sales proposal while at my last company. DocSend coached us to put each of our 3 pricing options on their own page and utilize analytics like time spent per page to our advantage. Before the customer even came back to us, we knew they’d go with option B. Because of this insight, DocSend helped us negotiate much more effectively. This result was a clear catalyst for me to purchase DocSend at each new role I undertake.”

The post How DocSend Led to a Better Negotiation of a 7-figure Sales Proposal appeared first on DocSend.

“When I submitted my pitch deck to DocSend Fundraising Network, I not only received tangible, specific feedback within 48hrs from DocSend on how I could perfect my pitch, I also was introduced to VCs that were genuinely interested in my idea.”

“DocSend Fundraising Network was able to introduce me to Uncork Capital, which resulted in a term sheet! This type of custom, hands-on help during the fundraising process is invaluable for any founder.”

UserGems’ Success Metrics with DocSend Fundraising Network

The DFN was able to provide UserGems with introductions to 21 interested VCs, resulting in 8 meetings, 2 term sheet offers, and one confirmed term sheet from Uncork Capital.

Prior to DocSend, Christian shared his pitch deck with investors via an attachment. This led to a lot of unknowns and questions, such as was there any interest and which investors were genuinely interested?

“With DocSend my insight no longer stops the second I send an email to investors. With real-time notifications, I know who is looking at my deck, for how long, and most importantly, which part of my pitch they’re most interested in. Whenever my presentations include information that changes over time, or I need to know how that information was consumed, I use DocSend.”

The post How UserGems Successfully Raised Their Seed Round Using DocSend Fundraising Network appeared first on DocSend.

Like many companies, Symphony Talent’s marketing and sales teams work closely to ensure the consistency of messaging, content, and to ultimately optimize the experience for Symphony Talent users.

Like most companies, this wasn’t always the case.

The Problem: Consistency and Personalization

Elyse Mayer, Symphony Talent’s VP of Marketing, has some idea of the pain points that frustrated her early on:

“Consistency and understanding of usage was an issue. I was Director of Content at this time and constantly asked for more content but without any context of what was working, why it was working, and who was using what.”

Without a clear understanding of what collateral was effective and being used, it was difficult to prioritize sales feedback and approach collateral creation from a strategic standpoint. For the other side of the story, here’s Mike Delzotti, Inside Sales Manager at Symphony Talent:

“We needed more personalized, targeted pieces to give to leads and prospects. We saw that this kind of content greatly increased the likelihood of conversion, and wanted to run with it. But, adding new logos and new numbers to one-pagers and white papers isn’t exactly scalable for a small content team either.”

It was clear to the team that a new strategy or tool was needed, so it was time to begin vetting different options and getting the right stakeholders involved. They tried Veelo, but found that while it suited sales fairly well, the marketing team didn’t find it useful in coordinating content.

After a bit more digging, the marketing team found the perfect balance: DocSend.

The Solution: DocSend, Personalization, and Activity Tracking

Elyse remembers her first “Aha!” moment with DocSend.

This tool captured my attention in 5 minutes as opposed to 3 hours of training. No one needs another multi-week training and rollout for new technology in an already busy schedule, and when I saw Sales actually sending content to prospects that first week, I knew we were on a good path.

Elyse Mayer

VP of Marketing, Symphony Talent

Marketing and Sales were working harmoniously and were able to put more focus where it mattered, on revenue growth across both departments. Consistency and continuity reigned again. In the meantime, the other side of the office was finding its own unique uses for DocSend. Here’s Mike again:

“Using DocSend’s Spaces feature, my team is able to fully personalize any meeting or interaction we have with potential clients. We put their logo and our logo in there, punch in their metrics and goals, and really strive to make them feel catered to. That makes all the difference in sales, and has really allowed us to grow exponentially.”

But DocSend isn’t just a “set it and forget it” tool. Mike’s team can actually pull metrics from those Spaces and documents as their prospects view them.

Most importantly, we want to understand when links within content are being clicked on and how much time is being spent viewing that content, so we can follow up with that prospect accordingly. These metrics turn what used to be a cold lead into a warm one. While they may not be answering the phone, they are checking out our content.

Elyse Mayer

VP of Marketing, Symphony Talent

The Impact: Efficiency, Quality, and Quantity

Neither Elyse nor Mike can really quantify the impact that DocSend has had on sales numbers or marketing metrics. But, they don’t really have to in order to feel the impact it’s had on their departments.

For Mike, “Overall the efficiency of leveraging the platform is extremely valuable to the team. It helps us stand out amongst our competition, and get our message in front of our prospects in a new and modern way.”

And for Elyse, “We don’t send PDFs anymore. Everything goes into DocSend. If you don’t use DocSend, you’re not getting it. Our first line of defense on a content question is, Go to Docsend.”

That kind of speaks for itself. DocSend just makes sense. A collaboration platform that improves sales numbers and keeps marketing happy? What’s not to love?

Try DocSend today, and see how we can help your business like we helped Symphony Talent.

The post Symphony Talent Drives Prospect Engagement with DocSend appeared first on DocSend.