I built a document analytics tool because I was tired of sending proposals into silence. Here is what I learned.
Every salesperson knows this feeling. You spend hours preparing a proposal, you hit send, and then nothing. Complete silence. You have no idea if they opened it, which parts they read, whether they forwarded it to someone else, or if it landed in their spam folder.
That silence is not just uncomfortable. It costs deals.
I built DocMetrics to fix that. It is a document analytics platform that tells you exactly what happens after you hit send. Who opened it. Which pages they read. How long they spent on each one. Whether they came back. Whether someone else at the company opened it too.
But here is what I discovered while building it. Raw metrics are not the real product. A founder here told me something that stuck — the value is not in showing the numbers. It is in turning those signals into deal judgment. Is this deal moving. Who is really involved. What does the silence mean. What should I do right now.
So I built that interpretation layer too. DocMetrics now generates a plain English summary per prospect that answers those exact questions automatically and sends it to your Gmail, Slack, HubSpot, or Microsoft Teams the moment something meaningful happens.
What it does today
Per viewer re-read detection across sessions — know exactly which pages each prospect keeps returning to
Dead deal scoring — combines multiple signals to tell you if a deal is alive or dying before you waste more time on it
Gone silent detection — fires after inactivity and tells you what the silence probably means
AI-style deal intelligence per prospect — one plain English paragraph with a clear recommended action
Real-time viewer presence — see who is reading your document right now
E-signature tracking with hesitation detection
Heatmaps, page engagement charts, location tracking, bounce analytics
The hard honest truth I learned
Building was not the hard part. Distribution is. I am still climbing that mountain. I have the product. I do not yet have the audience. That is the real work now.
If you send proposals, pitch decks, contracts, or any document where you need to know what happens after send — I would genuinely love for you to try it. Free to start.
Three questions for this community
When you send a proposal and get silence — what do you do? How long do you wait before following up?
What is the one signal that would tell you immediately whether a deal is worth chasing?
If your document analytics tool could tell you one thing it currently does not — what would that be?
Happy to answer anything about how I built it, what worked, what failed, and where I am headed. This community has already shaped the product through feedback I did not even ask for directly. That means a lot.
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The proposal silence problem is a visibility problem, not a proposal problem. You send it and immediately lose all signal on what happens next.
What I've found helps even without analytics: a client portal where the proposal lives, not just sits in their inbox. When clients can log in and see the proposal alongside project scope, timeline, and your contact info, engagement goes up - not because they open it more, but because the context around it makes action easier.
The 'sent into silence' feeling is also partly a CRM failure. If you're not logging send date, follow-up date, and client status, you're flying blind on when to follow up and who's worth the energy. The analytics just automate what a disciplined log would tell you.
Building this into a Solopreneur OS: client portal module where proposals, scopes, and deliverables are tracked in Notion. Revenue dashboard shows which proposals converted and which stalled. You stop guessing which clients are serious.
What was the biggest learning - that most people open it quickly and then stall, or that they never open it at all?
The client portal framing is interesting because context around the proposal making action easier is exactly what digital sales rooms try to solve. The analytics automate what a disciplined log would tell you is the most honest description of what document tracking does at its core. The biggest learning from watching proposals go out is that most people open quickly and then stall. The never opened at all scenario is rarer than people assume. The stall after genuine engagement is where most deals quietly die.
The 'silence after sending' problem is so widespread. Analytics help you know if they looked - but most solopreneurs don't even have a system that tells them when to follow up if silence has stretched too long.
The more upstream problem: proposals get sent and forgotten. No record of when it went, no follow-up trigger, no log of what was proposed at what price. The analytics layer is useful, but the CRM layer that says 'proposal sent on X, no response in 5 days, time to follow up' is often missing entirely.
I've been building a Notion OS for solopreneurs with a CRM that tracks proposal status - not open rates, just the simple human question: when did I last hear from them and what should happen next?
What conversion rate improvement did you see once you had the analytics data?
You described the layer below what DocMetrics sits at. The simple human question of when did I last hear from them and what should happen next is the foundation everything else builds on. Without that log the analytics layer has nothing to connect to. The conversion rate improvement question is harder to answer at this stage since the platform is early but the behavioral change we see is that salespeople stop sending generic check ins and start sending targeted messages based on what the engagement data actually shows. That change alone shifts response rates significantly.
To your three questions:
When I get silence after a proposal, I wait 3-4 days then follow up with something specific — not "just checking in" but a question or a small useful thing related to what I sent. It gives them a reason to reply that isn't just politeness.
The one signal that tells me a deal is worth chasing: if they've asked a detailed question, even a small one. Curiosity is harder to fake than encouragement.
The thing I'd want document analytics to tell me: not just who opened it, but who they forwarded it to and whether that person opened it. The moment a proposal moves sideways in an organization is usually when a deal is either accelerating or dying — and right now that's completely invisible.
The distribution problem you mentioned at the end is the honest part of this post. I'm in the same place with a different product. Building wasn't the mountain.
Thank you for answering all three questions directly and honestly. That is rare and I genuinely appreciate it.
Your follow up approach is exactly right. A specific question or a useful thing gives the prospect a reason to reply that feels natural rather than obligated. The 'just checking in' email is really just asking someone to do you a favour with nothing in return. What you described is a value exchange even if a small one.
The curiosity signal is something I had not articulated that clearly before but it is completely true. Someone who asks a detailed question has mentally moved past 'should I engage with this' and into 'how would this actually work for me.' That shift is huge and you are right that it is much harder to fake than a polite encouraging reply.
On your third point about forwarding — you just described the exact signal I find most valuable in everything I have built. The moment a second person from the same organisation opens a document that was only sent to one person is the clearest buying signal the system detects. It means your contact liked it enough to share it internally which is the hardest step in any B2B deal. Right now DocMetrics detects that a new viewer appeared and flags it immediately with a notification. What it cannot yet tell you is the relationship between the first viewer and the second one which is the next thing worth building.
And yes. Building was not the mountain. You named it perfectly. Distribution is the mountain and it is the one nobody warns you about clearly enough before you start climbing.
What are you building if you do not mind sharing?
Something very different to DocMetrics but with the same underlying problem — distribution.
I'm building Just One Step. A procrastination tool. You tell it something you've been putting off, it breaks it down and sends you one specific action — as small as possible. Not a plan, not a list. Just one thing that can sometimes lead to more. No streaks, no habit tracking, no daily pressure. Deliberately minimal. The people it seems to resonate most with are ADHD and anxiety sufferers who've tried every productivity app and bounced off all of them.
Still looking for the first real testers. Same mountain, different side.
Just One Step is a genuinely interesting name and the positioning is sharp.
Not a plan. Not a list. Just one thing. That constraint is the whole product
and it takes real discipline to resist adding more.
The ADHD and anxiety angle makes complete sense. Every productivity app
fails those users for the same reason. They add friction in the name of
structure and friction is exactly what someone with ADHD or anxiety cannot
push through. One specific action removes the decision fatigue completely.
Same mountain different side is exactly right. I am still looking for my
first paying user. You are still looking for your first real testers.
The product exists. The distribution wall is what remains.
If you ever want a second pair of eyes on your onboarding or your messaging
I am happy to look. And if Just One Step ever needs a way to track whether
users actually read the materials or guides you send them that is exactly
what DocMetrics does. Not a pitch. Just a genuine observation that our
problems are adjacent.
Rooting for you on the other side of the mountain.
That's a kind reply and I appreciate it.
I'd actually take you up on the second pair of eyes now if you're open to it — the onboarding is live and I'd rather have real feedback than wait for it to be perfect. And I'll keep DocMetrics in mind. If I'm sending guides to testers and want to know whether they actually read them, that's exactly the problem it solves.
What's the best way to connect?
Really glad you said yes.
Best way to connect is email. Reach me at founder@docmetrics.io.
Send me the onboarding link and I will go through it properly and give you honest specific feedback. Not what sounds good. What actually felt off and why.
And when you are ready to send guides to your testers and want to know who actually read them, how far they got, and whether anyone came back to re-read a specific section, DocMetrics is exactly that. I will set you up with 60 days on the Pro plan so you have enough time to test it properly on a real send and form a genuine view on whether it solves the problem for you.
Looking forward to it.
Thank you — that's a genuinely generous offer and I appreciate it.
After further thought, I don't think DocMetrics is the right fit for Just One Step right now. The app doesn't have guides or documents to send — it's entirely conversational, so there's nothing to track in the way you're describing. I'd rather be upfront and not be able to return the favor.
That is completely fair and I respect you for being upfront about it rather than just taking the offer. Honesty like that is rare.
No expectation of anything in return. If Just One Step ever moves in a direction where you are sending content to users and want to know how they engage with it the door is open.
Really appreciate that and here's the link if you ever have a few moments — justonestep.app
To get the best experience, add it to your home screen:
iPhone: Open in Safari → tap the share icon → "Add to Home Screen"
Android: Open in Chrome → tap the three dots menu → "Add to Home Screen"
Let me know how you get on.
Thank you for sharing the link. Adding it to my home screen right now and will give it a proper try. I will come back to you with honest feedback not what sounds good but what actually felt right and what did not.