In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Docusign CEO Allan Thygesen calls its new platform, which tackles contract management beyond just digital signatures, a “reinvention” of the entire company.in San Francisco, near the city’s waterfront with sweeping views of the Bay Bridge, visitors are greeted by a mural of a signature on an aquamarine wall. It’s not the signature of anyone in particular; company reps say they don’t know who it belongs to.
And the company is betting that the opportunity is enormous. $2 trillion in economic value is lost per year due to outdated contract systems, according to a Deloitte study Docusign commissioned, where the consultancy surveyed more than 1,000 contract managers across 10 countries. The lack of a platform to search and store contracts also adds to a time suck: an average of 25,000 hours a year are wasted in several business functions including legal, sales and human resources.
But just like its fellow pandemic stars, Docusign’s stock came back to earth as lockdowns ended and things got back to business as usual. The stock has stabilized recently, hovering around $60, but the company needed to expand its market in a post-pandemic world. “Both the opportunity and the necessity to rekindle higher growth is what's driving this,” Thygesen said.
At launch, customers will be able to deploy the IAM platform specifically to certain parts of their business, including sales or customer experience. Docusign will add functionality for more business areas later, including procurement, human resources and financial services. Right now, the company has thousands of existing customers beta testing the new platform for free, including real estate company Coldwell Banker and lifestyle blog Apartment Therapy.
Thygesen took over after the pandemic subsided. He grew up in Copenhagen, coming to the U.S. in 1986 to attend Stanford University’s MBA program. He joined Google in 2010, leading advertising marketing solutions for small and medium sized businesses. He eventually ascended to lead Google’s $100 billion North and South American ad business. Thygesen left the tech giant in 2022 to join Docusign, still struggling after the pandemic pop.