DocuInsight
AI-powered contract intelligence platform that integrated with DocuSign to simplify legal agreements
Retired As Of May 2025
AI-powered contract intelligence platform that integrated with DocuSign to simplify legal agreements
We built an AI-powered platform to solve the "Agreement Trap" where people sign contracts without understanding their rights and obligations.
In early 2024, co-founder Mehmet signed startup contracts without fully reviewing them. His business partner later used additional equity to force him out, and Mehmet discovered he had signed away important rights. This experience sparked the idea for DocuInsight.
Used OpenAI's advanced models to analyze legal documents, highlighting key clauses, risks, and commitments in plain English.
Users could "talk" with their contracts, asking questions about specific clauses and getting real-time, web-researched answers.
Generated optimized search queries to connect users with relevant lawyers based on location and contract type.
Seamlessly integrated with DocuSign's signing workflow, displaying insights alongside the signature process.
Supported a wide range of document formats including PDF, DOCX, DOC, and image files for comprehensive contract analysis.
Meet the two developers who built DocuInsight in less than 2 months.
Co-founder & Backend Developer
Software engineer at Charter/Spectrum, previously at eBay. Founded Osgil Defense ($145K pre-seed), built TARS cybersecurity tool (300+ stars) and Notify Cyber news site (17k+ visitors). Won 1st place at National Security Hackathon ($5K prize). CS degree from Colorado School of Mines.
Co-founder & Frontend Developer
Associate Design Engineer at Loren Cook. Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering and Master's in Computer Science from Colorado School of Mines (3.9+ GPA). Built Notify Cyber cybersecurity news site (17k+ visitors). Co-winner of 2025 National Security Hackathon ($5K prize) with Guardian Grid system. Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate.
Since we're shutting down, we're making the entire DocuInsight codebase open source. Learn from our code and our mistakes.
Complete Next.js frontend, Python analyzer, and database schemas. See how we integrated DocuSign, OpenAI, and built real-time chat.
Comprehensive setup guides, API documentation, and deployment instructions. Everything you need to run DocuInsight locally.
Watch our demo videos to see the platform in action. Great for understanding the user experience we built.
DocuInsight was a full-stack application with three main components working together.
From hackathon excitement to harsh market realities, here's how our business validation went.
Built for DocuSign Hackathon after researching contract complexity issues.
Talked with lawyers and SMB owners. Found polite interest but no urgency to pay.
Got honest feedback: "This is a feature, not a company"
Realized the business model was flawed. Made the hard decision to shut down.
An honest post-mortem of what went wrong and why we decided to shut down.
DocuInsight wasn't killed because it was bad sense it actually worked well. We killed it because we realized it couldn't become a venture-scale business. Better to cut losses early and reallocate energy to higher-potential projects.
"Too narrow market, platform risk with DocuSign, no clear expansion path. This looks like a vitamin, not a painkiller."
We built analytics for a workflow step that wasn't a burning pain point. Lawyers wanted drafting tools, SMBs wanted pipeline visibility.
Built on DocuSign's APIs. If they changed terms or added similar features, our business could disappear overnight.
Nobody said "We need this tomorrow." Polite interest doesn't translate to paying customers.
Key takeaways from building, validating, and ultimately shutting down DocuInsight.
Talk to customers before building. "Would this be nice to have?" is very different from "I need this tomorrow."
Ask "Why can't the platform owner build this themselves?" If you don't have a good answer, you're building a feature.
Who pays? How much? Why? These questions need clear answers before you build.
Sometimes the smartest thing is to shut down early and move on. Sunk cost fallacy is real.
