EchoSign's Pre-Adobe Growth

A story about how Jason Lemkin built EchoSign before selling it to Adobe in 2011.

"We were the first web solution for e-signatures. I wrote it all myself in PowerPoint and crappy wireframes. We built it and got to $1 million a month burning $4 million. We reached $12 million ARR growing 100% with 110% revenue retention and were cash flow positive.

We sold it in 2011, which was a long time ago in internet time. Back then, we didn't really understand the metrics around recurring revenue businesses. Even my board and investors weren't sure we had a good business. If I said to you today I've got a business doing $1 million a month, growing 100% with 110% revenue retention and profitable, you would say that's the ticket.

We had about 36% market share but were cash flow positive and growing 100%. We only raised $4 million, so when you sell your company to make your second millions, sometimes there's a certain logic in it. It was a very complicated decision because it made sense on paper, given that part of the team wanted to do it and given how little we'd raised. But in my gut, I knew emotionally it was the wrong thing to do."