Building a Developer-Friendly Signature Platform

In 2023, electronic signature tools like DocuSign and Adobe were hard for developers to use. They were built for salespeople, not programmers. If you wanted to add signatures to your app, you had to deal with complicated documentation, confusing SDKs, and high prices.

I joined SignatureAPI to build an electronic signature platform that developers would actually want to use.

Building the Playground

We launched our beta in March 2024. Developers signed up but many left without trying the API.

I looked at the data and watched how people used the site. The problem was that developers had trouble making their first API call. They would read the docs but get stuck before actually testing anything.

I spent two weeks building an Interactive API Playground. It lets developers test the API without writing any code first. They can create a document, add signers, and send a test signature request just by clicking buttons.

This helped a lot. More developers started using our API because they could see it work right away. This taught me that good documentation isn’t just text. It’s better when people can try things out interactively.

Making It Work for Non-Developers

As we grew, I noticed something. Developers loved our API, but non-technical people at companies wanted a simpler way to use it. They wanted to send contracts from spreadsheets without writing code.

I built a Power Automate Connector for Microsoft. Now, someone in HR could set up a simple workflow like “when I add a new person to this Excel spreadsheet, automatically send them an NDA.”

This let non-technical teams automate their work without needing to ask developers for help.

Keeping Data Safe

Building software that stores important legal documents like contracts and NDAs is a big responsibility. We have to keep that data very secure.

I built our system on AWS with strong security. We use NestJS for the backend and CloudFormation to manage our infrastructure. We encrypt all data and are working on SOC2 and HIPAA compliance certifications.

This security work isn’t as exciting as building new features, but it’s what makes customers trust us with their important documents.

Where We Are Today

Today, SignatureAPI is being used by paying customers for important workflows. New developers find us every week.

Our platform handles rental agreements, freelance contracts, and company approvals. It’s amazing to see something I built helping real businesses.

We’re making it easy for developers to add legally binding signatures to their apps, as simple as sending an email.