DocuInsight
AI-powered contract intelligence platform that integrated with DocuSign to simplify legal agreements
Project Retired On 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.
Meet the two developers who built DocuInsight in 3 months.
Co-founder & Backend Developer
Software engineer at Charter Communications with 3+ years at eBay building storage management systems processing 1.5M+ metrics per minute. Previously founded Osgil Defense (secured $145K pre-seed), built TARS cybersecurity tool (275+ GitHub stars), and won 1st place at multiple hackathons including the National Security Hackathon ($5K prize). CS degree from Colorado School of Mines with robotics research experience.
Co-founder & Frontend Developer
Associate Design Engineer at Loren Cook with expertise in product design and development. Holds a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering (3.9+ GPA) and Master's in Computer Science (3.9+ GPA) from Colorado School of Mines. Previously conducted Bitcoin transaction analysis research at Boise State University. Co-winner of the 2025 National Security Hackathon with Guardian Grid emergency evacuation system. Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate with experience in design for manufacturing.
"We're proud of what we built, even though the business didn't work out. DocuInsight taught us valuable lessons about customer discovery, product-market fit, and when to pivot."
— E&F Group Inc.
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.
Spent 2 months researching, experimenting, and interviewing potential customers before building anything.
Started building for DocuSign Hackathon after 1 month of focused idea validation. Initial excitement about solving contract complexity with AI.
Successfully deployed production-ready application. Got live traffic and positive initial feedback.
Talked with lawyers from KO Law and SMB owners. Found mixed signals with polite interest but no urgency to pay.
Pitched to VCs. Got brutal but honest feedback: "This is a feature, not a company"
Realized the business model was fundamentally flawed. Made the hard decision to shut down and open source everything.
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.
"Analytics are nice-to-have, but we need help with document
drafting, version control, and compliance across various
platforms."
- KO Law consultation, 2025
"We only sign 10-20 contracts per month. We need broader pipeline visibility and cash flow insights, not just signature analytics."
"Too narrow market, platform risk with DocuSign, no clear
expansion path. Where's the billion-dollar wedge? This looks
like a vitamin, not a painkiller."
- Drive Capital
We built analytics for a workflow step that wasn't a burning pain point. Lawyers wanted drafting tools, SMBs wanted pipeline visibility.
Over-reliance on DocuSign platform, pricing misalignment with customer value, and no clear expansion path to grow ACVs.
Built on DocuSign's APIs. If they changed terms or added similar features, our business could disappear overnight.
VCs were right - this was a dashboard feature that DocuSign could build internally, not a defensible standalone business.
Nobody said "We need this tomorrow." Polite interest doesn't translate to paying customers or sustainable revenue.
We weren't passionate about legal tech. Built opportunistically for a hackathon, not mission-driven for the long haul.
Key takeaways from building, validating, and ultimately shutting down DocuInsight.
Talk to customers before building, not after. "Would this be nice to have?" is very different from "I need this tomorrow."
Building on someone else's platform means they control your destiny. Always have a plan for what happens if they change the rules.
Ask "Why can't the platform owner build this themselves?" If you don't have a good answer, you might be building a feature.
Passion and domain expertise matter more than we thought. Opportunistic ventures are harder to sustain through tough periods.
Who pays? How much? Why? When? These questions need clear answers before you build, not after you launch.
Sometimes the smartest thing is to shut down early and move on. Sunk cost fallacy is real and dangerous.