I recently saw a demo of DealStage, software designed to help lawyers manage deals. The company bills its software as enabling “attorneys & transactional professionals to better manage the deal process lifecycle from drafting to closing.” Charlie Uniman, a lawyer with years of experience doing deals, is one of three people behind the company; he provided the demo and background.
DealStage lets a deal team build a list of all the documents required to close a deal. Then, for each one, it tracks the status: in process or final and who is working on it. And, for final documents, it collects and tracks all the signature pages. (Signatories are not hooked into the system; DealStage tracks receipt of and manages / stores signature pages.)
Of course, the software does more than this. For example, it lets users track versions of documents, manage redline comparisons, send notifications of new versions, and generate a closing book. Based on a one hour demo, I rate the interface as well-designed and easy-to-use.
I asked Charlie how DealStage is used and by whom. He reports that usage splits between the checklist and signature tracking functions at about 60% and 40% respectively. DealStage expects the most regular users will be junior lawyers and paralegals. So far, mainly mid-size and large law firms have shown interest but the company is also targeting in-house legal departments and enterprise procurement teams.
For the moment, DealStage is cloud software (running at Rackspace) but based on conversations with prospects, the company is also developing an on-premise version. Prospective on-premise users intend to use DealStage primarily as tool for internal deal team coordination. He added that cloud users can use DealStage either on purely internally or to collaborate across parties.
The product has been available since 2013. The company is self-funded. Pricing is per transaction and tied to complexity though an annual subscription is also available. The company will eventually supply deal templates.
End Note: Many companies contact me about possible blog posts and only once in a while do I view a demo and write a post. I do that when I have not seen a similar product and I think the product has broad and useful functionality within a practice. My usual caveats: (1) I have not researched the market and there may be competing products of which I am unaware; Charlie reports that Law Pal is probably the closest product. (2) I have no financial interest in it.