I lost €50K to non-paying clients... so I built an AI contract tool. Now at 300 users, 0 MRR.
I ran a 12-person design studio when I was 20.
€250K/year revenue. Clients loved our work. Everything looked great from the outside.
Then it collapsed.
€50K+ lost to clients who never paid. €40K in debt. Studio almost gone. Alone.
The worst part? Most of those clients weren't random people. They were other studios. Agencies. "Professional" businesses.
I trusted the process. Handshake deals. Google Doc agreements. "We'll pay after delivery."
Trust alone doesn't pay freaking salaries.
The idea hit me randomly.
I was updating payment terms in a client proposal. Tired of the usual template copy-paste routine.
Asked ChatGPT to rewrite the section.
It worked. Perfectly.
That's when it clicked... what if AI could write the entire contract? Not just templates. Actually understand your project and generate everything.
Fast forward 2 long years.
From Figma design to beta and now v1.
I've been vibe coding since before the term existed. When we all thought Gemini 2.5 pro is as good as it will get.
Mass amounts of credits (didn't count but probably way more than 15k$).
4 complete rebuilds.
First version failed. Terrible. Weak AI models at the time.
Current version... finally working.
Why I'm building this:
76 million freelancers in the US alone. Most either pay 20% to Upwork, use expensive tools like Bonsai ($17-79/month), or duct-tape together Google Docs + DocuSign + invoicing apps.
I want Accordio to be the all-in-one where AI handles the paperwork (and later on all your freelance admin). You describe your project once. Everything else flows.
You can try Accordio here: https://accordio.ai
Or just roast my landing page. Either works.
Tough lesson, but you're not alone - I've seen this pattern many times.
My key advice to you and everyone here:
Take 20-50% advance payment before starting (depending on total amount) and structure the rest around milestones. If a client doesn't have a few thousands euros/dollars upfront, that's a red flag - walk away. You can't be their bank.
Why? Enforcing international agreements is extremely difficult and expensive. Recovery costs often exceed what you're owed, plus the time sink is brutal. The advance payment is your best filter to avoid surprises.
Important warning about AI-generated contracts: If you're not a legal expert, AI contracts can appear strong but have no practical enforceability, and you cannot recognize hallucinations. They often contain meaningless clauses or miss critical jurisdiction-specific requirements. Always have them reviewed by a legal professional before relying on them - the cost of review is nothing compared to losing €50K. Better less templates but very effective.
Regarding your company site itself:
I visited your website and noticed your Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy need refinement to be legally stronger:
Both documents say "governed by international laws" - this is unenforceable (no unified international legal system exists). Should specify the laws where your company is registered or the customer one (but less convenient for you). In some international contracts I saw cited the International Arbitration Institute in Stockolm.
Missing dispute resolution mechanisms
Privacy Policy has unfilled placeholders (Stripe link, contact information)
No jurisdiction/forum selection clauses
GDPR compliance gaps (DPO contact, supervisory authority, data transfer clauses)
Proposing a contract tool, having rock-solid legal documentation on your own site would strengthen credibility significantly.
I'm not a legal expert, just sharing my experience.
Really appreciate this... especially the callout on my own T&C and Privacy Policy. You're absolutely right - if I'm building a contract tool, my own legal docs need to be rock solid. Already working on fixing those placeholders and adding proper jurisdiction clauses.
The advance payment advice is spot on. That's literally why I built milestone escrow into Accordio... learned that lesson the hard way with €50K.
Thanks for taking the time to dig into the site properly 🙏
Small spoiler: contracts are just the start. Working on something called "Accordio Brain" - imagine managing your entire freelance business from WhatsApp... contracts, invoices, time tracking, risk alerts. One conversation to run everything.
Coming soon 👀
A lot of people talk about freelancing pain in abstract terms. You’re talking about the real cost: stress, debt, and learning the hard way that trust without structure is expensive
Thats the boring but necessary part of any business. Its easy to flex numbers… but I want to show the real picture.
I work in home health and hospice, and we see the same pattern play out all the time. Agencies start with trust spreadsheets, Google Docs, verbal agreements with referral partners, payers, even contractors and everything looks fine until it suddenly isn’t. Delayed payments, missing signatures, compliance gaps, cash flow pressure that stays invisible right up until it hurts.
What stood out to me was the reason behind AI. Getting burned early forces you to build for protection instead of optimism. That mindset usually shows up in the product whether people consciously notice it or not.
In healthcare, we’re starting to see AI home health software move in a similar direction. Less about adding another disconnected tool and more about systems that actually understand the workflow.
Nice work getting this out. Interested to see where you take it next.
"Building for protection instead of optimism" - that hits different. You're right... getting burned early changes how you think about every feature.
Cool to hear healthcare is moving in a similar direction. Different industries, same pattern - trust works until it doesn't.
Thanks for the kind words... excited to see where it goes too.
Spoiler: the real vision isn't just contracts. Building "Accordio Brain" - an AI agent that runs your freelance business through WhatsApp/Slack. Proactive risk alerts, automatic time tracking, the whole thing. Contracts were step one... the OS for freelancers is what's next 🧠