DocuSign CEO Sees Big Opportunity in 'Agreement Cloud'

DocuSign, a company that allows users to sign PDFs electronically, replaced United Airlines in the Nasdaq 100 index this week, a move chock full of symbolism as so-called "stay-at-home stocks" have rallied amid the pandemic.

Shares of DocuSign are up about 120 percent year-to-date, though CEO Dan Springer told Cheddar that he's trying not to think about the stock price as he focuses on broadening the company's portfolio. 

"We were off to a great start this year before the pandemic," Spring said. While the effects of COVID-19 recently propelled companies like Zoom and Slack, they also "accelerated" DocuSign's growth trajectory.  

To wit: in Q1 of 2019, the company added 3,000 net new customers. In Q1 of 2020, it more than tripled that. DocuSign is also seeing significant growth with its existing customer base, Springer said, pointing to a metric known as "dollar net retention," similar to same-store sales in retail. DocuSign's dollar net retention is up 119 percent this quarter, he said, meaning existing customers are spending nearly 20 percent more on DocuSign products and services.

Springer sees a major growth opportunity in what he calls the "agreement cloud" -- the unsexy, but potentially lucrative business of preparing documents and forms for signature, and then managing them once they're signed.

"That really is the future for this company," Springer said. "It's the next big cloud opportunity."

With its induction into the Nasdaq 100 -- considered a tech industry benchmark -- DocuSign will take its place in the index next to heavyweights like Alphabet, Apple, and Facebook just two years after the company went public.

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