What 300+ founders taught me about contracts
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been building VIDI - an AI tool that helps small businesses understand contract risks before signing.
Earlier I shared the project here on Indie Hackers and the discussions across two posts grew to more than 300 comments.
First discussion:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-built-an-ai-contract-analysis-tool-for-smbs-looking-for-feedback-ae432411d6
Follow-up discussion:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/what-happened-after-my-ai-contract-tool-post-got-70-comments-e89c3756b5
Reading through all those comments and conversations with founders was incredibly valuable.
Several insights from the community really changed how I think about the product.
For example, @benj_mtn pointed out that founders rarely think in terms of “contract analysis”.
Instead they think about a much simpler question:
“Am I about to sign something that could cost me money later?”
That framing resonated strongly and helped me rethink how the product should be explained.
Another important point from @backendrescue was about trust.
Users need to see exactly where the AI found the risky clause in the contract instead of receiving a black-box answer.
@ShelfCheck also mentioned something that stuck with me - early users often evaluate the founder just as much as the product. Being present in discussions and responding thoughtfully can matter as much as the tool itself in the early days.
Other founders like @Sophia_Dev and @jarv5iz shared really helpful product feedback around things like:
• showing the top risky clauses
• adding suggested edits
• making the workflow clearer (upload → risk highlights → summary)
I also want to say thanks to other community members who shared thoughtful insights and questions in the discussions - including @kintsuai, @nickcoffee, @ourabi, @TaxSort, @JuhyunChoi, @n8nship and @Inatolnato.
Your feedback and perspectives were incredibly helpful while thinking through the product direction.
One thing became very clear from all these discussions.
Many founders told me they usually:
• skim contracts quickly
• rely on templates
• or sign without fully understanding every clause
Especially for things like:
• vendor agreements
• SaaS contracts
• service agreements
Hiring a lawyer for every contract is often too expensive for small businesses.
That’s the problem I’m trying to solve with VIDI.
Right now the product allows you to:
• upload a contract
• detect potentially risky clauses
• get a plain-English explanation
Still very early, but discussions like this are incredibly valuable when building a product from scratch.
If anyone wants to test the current version or share feedback:
https://joyful-granita-8415bc.netlify.app
Curious to hear from the community:
What’s the worst clause you discovered after signing a contract?
Will you make a subscription with premium features like big size files or deep ai research?
That's something I'm planning for the future.
Right now the tool is free while I'm testing it and learning from early users. Later it will likely move to a subscription model with additional features in higher tiers.
That insight about founders not thinking in terms of “contract analysis” but instead “could this cost me money later?” is really spot on.
I’ve noticed something similar while exploring tools for WorkflowAces — how you frame the problem often matters more than the technical capability itself. When the language matches how people actually think, the product suddenly makes much more sense.
That's a great observation.
I've started noticing the same thing while talking to founders - most of them don't think about "contract analysis" as a category. The real trigger moment is when they're about to sign something and wonder if there's a hidden risk.
Framing the problem around that moment seems to resonate much more than describing the technical capability of the tool.
Appreciate you sharing that example.
Yeah exactly, that “moment before signing” is really the key trigger. Most founders don’t go looking for contract analysis tools, they just want quick clarity before committing to something.
Feels like framing the product around that moment could make it much easier for people to immediately understand the value.
Exactly - that “moment before signing” seems to be the real trigger.
In several conversations with founders, many said they usually skim contracts quickly and only start worrying right before signing.
That’s the moment where a quick risk summary becomes much more valuable than a full legal analysis.
Still learning from how people actually review agreements, but those patterns are starting to appear pretty clearly.
That makes a lot of sense. The timing really changes how people perceive the value. A quick risk summary right before signing is exactly what most founders probably need.
Yeah, exactly. Timing seems to matter a lot.
When someone is actively about to sign an agreement, even a quick summary of potential risks can be incredibly valuable compared to a full legal-style analysis.
That moment of uncertainty right before committing seems to be where tools like this can actually help the most.
Huge thanks again to everyone who shared thoughtful feedback in the earlier discussions.
Many of the ideas mentioned there already influenced how I'm improving the product and how I'm thinking about positioning.
One thing I'm still trying to understand better:
How do you usually review contracts before signing in your business?
Do you typically:
Curious how founders here actually deal with contracts in real life.