A Decade of Reflection

Wow. I’ve been riding this roller-coaster for 10 years already. During that time, especially when things did not go as planned, I thought about a quote from Bill Gates:

So, when I founded Legito, did I really underestimate where Legito would be in 10 years?

The answer is not that simple. If you told me in 2014 that this is where Legito would be in 2024, I would probably be a little bit underwhelmed. But if you told me the same thing a year later, I would have looked at you like you were insane. My original vision of how easy it would be to build a unicorn startup was quite naïve, which is a good thing in hindsight because if I knew how hard it would be, I might not have even started which would be a real shame.
Just like we take time to reflect at the end of each year, I looked back at everything that’s transpired since 2014 but focused on the much wider picture.

Ten years ago

Life was very different for me in 2014. I had just attained my master’s degree in computer science and quit my job in law. I founded this new startup called Contractor (known today as Legito) with $20,000 in the bank I had saved from my previous job and hired a friend from college to help me build the software part-time. Our first office was in my condo.
We gave away the application for free at the beginning so had zero revenues in our first year. Our revenues in 2015 were just $10,000.

Five key things that’s transpired since 2014

First and foremost – We are still here, we haven’t gone bankrupt! This is something we have never presented as an achievement in our annual summaries, but approximately 9 out of 10 startups don’t survive, so I believe this is the biggest success of everyone who worked for Legito throughout the last 10 years.

Secondly, we moved forward in each of the 10 years. In some years, we ran fast, sometimes we walked with a heavy burden, and sometimes we had to crawl. Usually, part of our team had to crawl so the other could run. We make Legito better for our customers each year. The innovation mindset is something deeply ingrained in Legito’s DNA.

Third, we grew our business to a size that is reached by only 1 out of 100 startups. I believe that the ultimate validation of a product’s quality is revenues generated, so although it is not just about money, this number tells me that our team does a great job in serving our customers.

Fourth, we are profitable. Legito was always built with an “infinite game” mindset, so now being at the stage where we have an infinite “startup runway” means our team has achieved the goal of building a company that can last forever (or at least for a very long time).

Fifth, we have great colleagues and customers all around the world. The fact that we can work with and serve many people from different places and cultures is really exciting.

Brief history

It all started in 2014 as a marketplace providing off-the-shelf automated templates of contracts and other legal documents for individuals and small businesses.

At the beginning of 2018, we pivoted from a transactional marketplace to a pure B2B SaaS model, offering Legito as a platform where companies could automate their own legal and business documents.

In 2019, we added document lifecycle management so our customers could manage their document workflows, approvals, and other process agendas.

In 2020, we built tools for internal and external sharing and collaboration on documents.

In 2021, we expanded Legito’s use cases with our no-code application builder that allowed our customers to manage additional areas related to documents such as vendors, tenders, procurement, legal entities, property, etc.

In 2022, we completed the circle with our own electronic signature tool, Legito Sign, so our customers can now manage their documents exclusively in Legito throughout their entire lifecycle.

Next 10 years

I personally haven’t been bored for a single day in the last 10 years. I never had any doubts that thanks to Legito and its people, I live my best life. My personal wish for the next decade is that everybody in Legito feels the same way.

I hope I will be able to draft a similar article 10 years from now, summarizing the next 10 years.

Ondrej Materna
CEO
Legito

Wow. I’ve been riding this roller-coaster for 10 years already. During that time, especially when things did not go as planned, I thought about a quote from Bill Gates:

So, when I founded Legito, did I really underestimate where Legito would be in 10 years?

The answer is not that simple. If you told me in 2014 that this is where Legito would be in 2024, I would probably be a little bit underwhelmed. But if you told me the same thing a year later, I would have looked at you like you were insane. My original vision of how easy it would be to build a unicorn startup was quite naïve, which is a good thing in hindsight because if I knew how hard it would be, I might not have even started which would be a real shame.
Just like we take time to reflect at the end of each year, I looked back at everything that’s transpired since 2014 but focused on the much wider picture.

Ten years ago

Life was very different for me in 2014. I had just attained my master’s degree in computer science and quit my job in law. I founded this new startup called Contractor (known today as Legito) with $20,000 in the bank I had saved from my previous job and hired a friend from college to help me build the software part-time. Our first office was in my condo.
We gave away the application for free at the beginning so had zero revenues in our first year. Our revenues in 2015 were just $10,000.

Five key things that’s transpired since 2014

First and foremost – We are still here, we haven’t gone bankrupt! This is something we have never presented as an achievement in our annual summaries, but approximately 9 out of 10 startups don’t survive, so I believe this is the biggest success of everyone who worked for Legito throughout the last 10 years.

Secondly, we moved forward in each of the 10 years. In some years, we ran fast, sometimes we walked with a heavy burden, and sometimes we had to crawl. Usually, part of our team had to crawl so the other could run. We make Legito better for our customers each year. The innovation mindset is something deeply ingrained in Legito’s DNA.

Third, we grew our business to a size that is reached by only 1 out of 100 startups. I believe that the ultimate validation of a product’s quality is revenues generated, so although it is not just about money, this number tells me that our team does a great job in serving our customers.

Fourth, we are profitable. Legito was always built with an “infinite game” mindset, so now being at the stage where we have an infinite “startup runway” means our team has achieved the goal of building a company that can last forever (or at least for a very long time).

Fifth, we have great colleagues and customers all around the world. The fact that we can work with and serve many people from different places and cultures is really exciting.

Brief history

It all started in 2014 as a marketplace providing off-the-shelf automated templates of contracts and other legal documents for individuals and small businesses.

At the beginning of 2018, we pivoted from a transactional marketplace to a pure B2B SaaS model, offering Legito as a platform where companies could automate their own legal and business documents.

In 2019, we added document lifecycle management so our customers could manage their document workflows, approvals, and other process agendas.

In 2020, we built tools for internal and external sharing and collaboration on documents.

In 2021, we expanded Legito’s use cases with our no-code application builder that allowed our customers to manage additional areas related to documents such as vendors, tenders, procurement, legal entities, property, etc.

In 2022, we completed the circle with our own electronic signature tool, Legito Sign, so our customers can now manage their documents exclusively in Legito throughout their entire lifecycle.

Next 10 years

I personally haven’t been bored for a single day in the last 10 years. I never had any doubts that thanks to Legito and its people, I live my best life. My personal wish for the next decade is that everybody in Legito feels the same way.

I hope I will be able to draft a similar article 10 years from now, summarizing the next 10 years.

Ondrej Materna
CEO
Legito

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