SM: Small companies do not have enough bandwidth to do anything themselves. That is why hosted solutions are so good for them. JL: They also don’t do AdWord searches for solutions. We get our SMBs virally. We convert them at a higher rate than an enterprise because they immediately see the value.
SM: What was your solution to finally get more customers? JL: I knew we just had to get out there. AdWords did not work great, but it worked a little. SEO did not workgreat, but it worked a little bit, so we did more of that.
SM: Would you synthesize what EchoSign is for us? JL: EchoSign is the simplest way for any business to get contracts signed, tracked and filed. We want to take all the pain out of paperwork and contracting, and make closing a deal on the web as simple as it is to work on WebEx or
SM: Many times I do not think VCs have any class. JL: I think people misunderstand VCs. They are financiers.
SM: What were you doing while all of the drama was going on with BabyCenter? JL: I briefly worked with one of my co-founders of EchoSign at a small consulting firm. We were then helping other 1.0 companies work on some issues, and we helped some with the BabyCenter issues. We then got recruited by
SM: Let’s talk about your time at BabyCenter. When did you get involved? JL: I joined the company about a year after it was founded. I had gotten to know them as a lawyer.
Jason Lemkin is CEO and co-founder of EchoSign, an electronic signature automation service. He was previously an entrepreneur-in-residence at Storm Ventures and co-founder of NanoGram Devices, Prior to his work in technology he was a corporate counsel at Venture Law Group. He earned a BA from Harvard and a JD from Berkeley. You can find his
SM: In 2006 you decided to take VC money. Why then? VS: Our business got pretty big, relatively speaking. I am not an insider in that area, but we started getting calls from tier 1 VCs. I was never interested in just doing the rounds, but I figured if folks like that wanted to court