Aussie startup Paperform challenges industry leaders with e-signature solution

Bootstrapped tech Aussie startup Paperform says it is taking the world of digital signatures to the next level in a bid to support small and medium businesses struggling to navigate various tech platforms and the accompanying subscription costs in the economic downturn. And it is taking on industry giants at the same time. 

The online form builder, which was founded in 2016 by husband and wife duo Dean and Diony McPherson, has this week unveiled its new e-signature product, Papersign. 

The team had a vision to facilitate a world where business leaders spend less time on work and more time on the things that matter in life.

Whilst juggling four kids under the age of five and running Paperform, the founders say they have built Papersign to help businesses shift their operating models and further streamline digital signatures, while saving time and money on software.

Paperform co-founder and COO Diony McPherson told SmartCompany that the startup is always looking for ways to free up time for business people, so they can focus on what matters. 

“Companies like DocuSign have done a great job of digitising what used to be a slow manual process, but we wanted to take e-signatures one step further and change the way people think about e-signature software,” she explains. 

“Right now is a tough time for small businesses and startups in Australia. The economic downturn is impacting revenue and profit margins, leaving less in the bank for additional expenses including what seems to be the ever-expanding suite of tech tools designed to streamline business operations.”

Paperform’s existing form builder will be integrated with the new feature, which McPherson says means businesses will be able to use both to “capture rich client info, charge payment, and get the contract signed all in one hit”.  

“With simplified, streamlined platforms that complement one another, we want to help small businesses get more done with fewer subscriptions, so they can spend more time on impactful work,” she adds. 

Bootstrapping to take on industry giants

Paperform has fast evolved from an online form-building company into a ‘digital Swiss army knife’ for companies, enabling them to create and automate registration pages, payment pages, e-commerce sites, restaurant order forms, surveys, quizzes, application forms, proposals, project scopes, onboarding forms, invitations and more. 

Today, the Sydney-based startup has more than 10,000 paying users and has not taken any venture capital or other external funding whatsoever.

Paperform’s latest move with Papersign seeks to capitalise on Asia Pacific’s speedy uptake of digital signatures. According to Deloitte, the e-signature market will grow by over US$14 billion by 2026 (up from US$4 billion today) — with Asia Pacific and Europe expected to be the fastest-growing regions globally by 2026.

McPherson says for customers already integrated with Paperform, it is promising even stronger time savings simply through the efficiencies of keeping items like e-signature collection and all supporting components within one platform. 

“We’ve seen law firms save 25-plus hours per month in client onboarding time, allowing them to create personalised client experiences at scale,” she says by way of example. 

Paperform offers both a free plan, as well as a ‘Pro’ tier, which is priced at US$20 per month. 

According to McPherson, the company’s customers have generated more than $200 million in sales using Paperform over the past five years, $80 million of which has been generated in the past 12 months. Paperform’s customers also report seeing up to 91% improvement in form completion.

“We expect the same results for Papersign,” the co-founder says. 

As an Aussie bootstrapped business going up against industry giants, McPherson says the launch is an exciting milestone for the Paperform team.

“We’ve never received a single cent of external investment for Paperform, so have remained in control of the company, its direction, and long-term objectives. That’s why we’ve been able to put so much time and effort into the development of Papersign to ensure it’s the best offering on the market for our customers,” she says. 

“We’re not bogged down with legacy software that comes with excessive time spent working out kinks while trying to meet new customer expectations. Our platform is evolving with our customers’ needs, and we now have a robust offering for companies looking to change the way they deploy solutions.

“It’s worth noting that we’ve also done this before. The forms automation market that our core forms product has grown and thrived within is swarming with established competitors. We understand how to operate in these markets in a capital efficient, and competitive manner. We’re extremely proud to have created high-quality software as an Aussie dev team that is distributed and used globally.”

Paperform co-founder and CTO Dean McPherson added that as a product-led business, the startup had the idea to integrate digital signatures on Paperform when many of its customers needed to spend additional time and cost to have their forms signed. 

“Papersign solves these challenges in one fell swoop, making it as seamless as possible for them to get their documents signed,” he said.