Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
Full method →
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q And do you feel like you being a first company right from 2019 when you started You have the highest amount of tailwinds today. Uh, are you feeling those winds?
A Yeah, totally. I mean, it started, start from the architecture and how we built the platform. I think it has helped us there, but I think one of the most important things that has happened is that the market has gotten a little more educated on what AI can do. Earlier, uh, the, the thought was AI would come in and just completely do all of your work and it's supposed to be a full on replacement for Uh, you know, any human's job that is there. Now they understand the concept of it being a copilot and not a pilot. Uh, you don't need to go and explain what AI does. Um, and the, what we were trying to push earlier now has become a pull for us. So when we go in the market, people start with, hey, show me the AI stuff that you have. Um, you know, how can we, how can we adopt it? And it's, it's almost a mandate in a lot of, uh, companies to make sure that things are AI first and That's really helped us there.
AI assessment note: “Yeah, totally. I mean, it started, start from the architecture and how we built”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q And tell us the first few years of struggle of building the product, finding the right market, finding the first few investors, how, what went into it?
A Yeah. So I think what we started doing was we started speaking to a bunch of our customers who we thought were our customers. And at that point we thought every founder was our customer. Um, for those of you who don't know what SpotDraft does, we are an end-to-end contract automation platform. So think of us like the Salesforce for contracts. Uh, contracts get created, managed, analyzed, and collaborated upon using SpotDraft so you can close deals faster. Now we thought that founders had this problem. Um, so we started speaking to founders and then we realized that, no, it's probably the lawyers who have, uh, who have the greater problem around contracts. And the mistake that we did at that point is we ended up asking, what do you want as a product? And the answer was, I want a machine to come and read my contract and tell me the good, bad, which is essentially replaced me with a machine.
AI assessment note: “we started speaking to a bunch of our customers who we thought were our customers.”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q And, uh, when, when customers compare between you and the biggies, let's say Ironclad, iCertus, what, what helps you win that battle?
A Uh, I think the biggest one is the fact that, uh, we are end to end, uh, in, in our form and manner that we are, they want one integrated system that does, um, everything around contracts and that does it beautifully. Second is we are very simple to use, very beautiful to look at. It is something that a lot of lawyers struggle with having clunky age old software. Um, third is we are very malleable as a product. Given our experience in enterprise and our learnings there, we realized that if we build the base as malleable as possible, where you could put any contractual use case, uh, any contract related use case on SpotDraft and make it work. That really helps. So there isn't a edge case that cannot be solved using the spot drop system as far as, uh, you know, creating a contract, negotiating them, collaborating on them is concerned. Uh, that is a differentiator. And last is, I think we give a lot of love to our customers and really focus on them with what we do. Um, we've, We went and read all the one star reviews, uh, everywhere, uh, for our competitors and said, let's build these pieces out first and focus on these pieces and make them as our differentiators, um, which has worked well. In fact, G two now rated us as amongst the best contract management software to use when we were, uh, in 20, 21. And we were amongst the fastest growers there.
AI assessment note: “I think the biggest one is the fact that, uh, we are end to end”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q If I ask you, Rick, how has Shashank changed as a person pre-spot draft and today?
A Yeah, I, I think, um, I have, I have a lot more, um, patience, resilience, uh, for, for failure than what I had before. Uh, as a founder, I have heard more no's and, uh, either in sales or in fundraising or in recruitment than ever before. Had that happened to me, uh, earlier in my life, I would have felt really dejected. This has made me way stronger, way more, um, resilient. Uh, that's, that's one. Second is, there was a time where I thought being a founder was for the money and the fame that is there. Uh, I think that mindset, uh, has completely gone away. You know, I love being a founder for the value that I'm able to show to our customers as Poddraft and some whatever change that we are able to enable for the people who work with us and to see them grow. I think that joy is the most amazing thing. So it's gone away from being this, you know, this being a business to, you know, being a real passion of wanting to solve a problem. That customers really care about.
AI assessment note: “I have a lot more, um, patience, resilience, uh, for, for failure”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.30
Q And what are those conversations looking like? Like what are, when investors discuss, what is the right Indian public number today to go public for a SaaS company here in India?
A I think, uh, the numbers that get thrown around is about a hundred million dollars, a hundred crores, sorry. Um, uh, and, um, we've seen success coming at that end. We've also started seeing success come at like three, 400 crores. Uh, but hundred crores is the number that People talk about, but then if you're an investor, you're looking at like a, your IRR should be hit with that at, you know, if you invest today at that hundred crore mark, so you know best about how to, so how that works. So maybe that number may be a little too early for them, uh, to go public. They may want the company to go sizably bigger before, uh, going public.
AI assessment note: “the numbers that get thrown around is about a hundred million dollars, a hundred crores”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.30
Q So Pallav, we are towards the conclusion of our podcast today, right? And a few questions that I want to address towards, you know, which are important for founders. As a founder today, in BtoB, should you set up your company as a US HQ or an India HQ company?
A I mean, um, Madhav, Rohit, and I came back to India to start a world-class company out of India, and we feel very strongly about it. Uh, so we have historically resisted any, um, you know, push to, uh, switch or, you know, um, so I feel like that difference of being in US versus India has gone away. Um, also, I don't think that India is necessarily inferior if that is what the projection you want to do. So, um, And, and a lot of the investors find it easier to invest in India rather than invest in a U.S. sub after a certain point, a U.S. hold co after a certain point. So I don't see a problem with remaining in India. Um, you can, you can be an Indian holding company and a U.S. sub. There are pros and cons, but I feel like there are much bigger pros of being in India.
AI assessment note: “I don't see a problem with remaining in India.”
