"Companies With Content Employees Thrive, And Clients Can Feel That", Brais Méndez, Docuten CEO

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I studied Computer Engineering at the University of A Coruña in Spain and spent several years working at different digital signature and electronic invoicing companies like TB Solutions, SERES, and Invinet before starting my own company.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Docuten transforms clients into paperless companies by digitally transforming administrative processes through digital signature, and issuing and receiving electronic invoices. By relying on Docuten as their sole provider, companies can reduce costs by 50% and implementation can be carried out 2.5 times faster than working with several different providers.

What is the origin story?

After working at a number of digital signature and e-invoicing companies, I saw a need in the market to simplify and streamline digital administrative processes that were often made overly complex. I partnered with my colleague Ángel Aparicio and launched Docuten in 2009 (formerly under the name Enxendra).

Over the years, our venture has grown. We now have offices in A Coruña and Madrid, and a rapidly expanding team of more than 35 employees. Our product suite has also evolved to include digital signature, and e-invoicing issuance and reception.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

The diversity! Docuten is a super diverse, multi-talented team of individuals from all over that bring different perspectives and approaches to our work. The majority of us have years of experience in our area of expertise and are eager to give our clients the best service possible.

Why do clients trust us to improve their administrative processes? There are some big players in the digital signature and e-invoicing markets, but we offer bundled solutions for end-to-end administration digitalisation with first-rate support and customer service.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

The truth is I can't imagine following another path in life.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

I measure success by two interconnected metrics: client and employee satisfaction. Companies with content employees thrive, and clients can feel that. The goal is to ensure that your clients are happy with the service you are providing, and to have a team that is excited to be at work every day.

Our Annual Recurring Revenue growth is demonstrative of a high level of client satisfaction: between 2019 and 2020 Docuten had a 38% growth in ARR. Last year, we brought in 75% more clients that bill over 3000€ annually. With that type of upsurge, we are predicting even more growth in 2021.

In fact, this year Docuten has a 72% increase in billing as compared to the same period in 2020; as of July 2021, our ARR is 1.585.945€.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

What’s been most exciting is expanding our client base into different sectors and getting to learn more about (and address the challenges of) diverse industries. We currently have a strong foothold in the industrial sector as well as in construction, but have clients across the board: in fashion, renting, hospitality, food, etc.

Docuten also serves a variety of different departments like HR, legal, sales, and finance. Our growing knowledge about these distinct industries and business areas has proven to be invaluable in providing the best service possible to our clients.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

In the world of administrative digitalisation, I think OCR technology is pretty exciting. Docuten offers various means for our clients to receive invoices from vendors. Unfortunately, some vendors are less enthusiastic about having to send invoices electronically. That is where our OCR technology comes in. Vendors can easily send invoices in PDF format as an email attachment to the client’s Docuten mailbox. Our OCR reader receives the information from the PDF invoice, structures it, and indexes it directly in the client’s systems. Our OCR technology has a 99.6% accuracy!

Alternatively, some advances (especially at the intersection of medicine and technology) bring certain socio-cultural implications that could prove controversial, which is worrisome.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

It is important to keep your finger on the pulse of the newest technologies and innovations out there. HackerNoon is a great way to connect to tech professionals all over the world and learn about exciting up-and-coming startups. We are honored to have Docuten nominated as one of HackerNoon’s Startups of the Year alongside other leading companies.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Believe in yourself and never give up. It might sound cliché but it’s so important to have faith in your ideas and abilities. Also, surround yourself with great people. Docuten wouldn’t be where it is today without our amazing team.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Remote work is the future. I’m obviously not the only one who has come to this conclusion after the events of last year, but it’s worth highlighting.

Our entire team has been working remotely since March of 2020. More recently, as restrictions have been lifted, some employees have returned to the office​. Due to the nature of our work, as well as the fact that Docuten has offices in various locations and remote work policies were in place prior to the pandemic, it has been a smooth transition to a digital workplace.

Docuten’s product suite has also enabled the majority of our clients to continue working during this period since transactions that were traditionally done on paper and/or in-person can now be handled remotely and electronically. Our services have been crucial for many of the companies we work with.