Founder Interview
How Dedoco Reached 40 Enterprise Customers on Blockchain Document Signing in Under a Year (Interview with Co-Founder and CTO Ernie Teo)
- Interview Date
- November 10, 2021
- Interviewee
- Ernie TeoCo-Founder and CTO
Company Metrics at Interview Time
Paying Enterprise Customers (2021)
40
Seed Funding Raised (2021)
$2M
Team Size (2021)
30
Individual License Price (2021)
$30/month
Enterprise Annual Contract (2021)
$100K
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Ernie Teo during the interview recorded in November 2021 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See Dedoco’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01Dedoco had approximately 40 paying enterprise brand customers at the time of the interview in November 2021
- 02The company had about 1,000 registered users on its SaaS platform
- 03Enterprise customers paid an annual subscription averaging around $100K, with 2 to 3 such clients signed
- 04Individual licenses were priced at $30 per month per user
- 05Brand customers paid by credits at $5 per transaction
- 06Dedoco raised a $2M seed round, closed in July 2021 when the platform officially launched
- 07The team had 30 people total, with approximately 20 engineers
- 08Key growth channels included VC network referrals, system integrator partnerships, and a partnership with the Singapore government's certificate authority for digital signing
- 09Dedoco's core differentiator was a decentralized document verification model where documents were not stored on Dedoco's cloud but verified via blockchain hashes
- 10The company's vision was to become an API provider for all verifiable document processes, similar to how Stripe operates for payments
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Paying Enterprise Customers (2021) | 40 | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
| Registered SaaS Users (2021) | 1,000 | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
| Seed Funding Raised (2021) | $2M | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
| Team Size (2021) | 30 | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
| Engineers on Team (2021) | 20 | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
| Individual License Price (2021) | $30/month per user | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
| Enterprise Annual Subscription (2021) | $100K | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
| Credit Price per Transaction (2021) | $5 | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
| Average Credits Used per Brand per Month (2021) | 100 | Founder interview, Nov 2021 |
Growth Breakdown
Revenue
Dedoco operated a multi-tier pricing model: individual users paid $30 per month, smaller brand customers purchased credits at $5 per transaction, and enterprise clients paid annual subscriptions averaging $100K. At the time of the interview, the company had 2 to 3 large enterprise clients on annual contracts.
Customers
The company reported approximately 40 paying enterprise brand customers and around 1,000 registered users on its SaaS platform. Customers included financial institutions, property agencies, and government agencies in Singapore, with expansion into Malaysia underway.
Team
Dedoco had 30 people on the team at the time of the interview, with approximately 20 of them being engineers. The engineering-heavy composition reflected the company's focus on building enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure from scratch.
Funding
Dedoco closed a $2M seed round in July 2021, timed with the official launch of its platform. The founders chose to raise capital rather than bootstrap in order to scale the team and marketing efforts quickly to capture the wave of business digitization.
Growth Strategy
Government Partnership as a Launch Channel
Dedoco partnered with the Singapore government's certificate authority for digital signing, which gave the platform immediate credibility and drove adoption among government agencies and property agencies that required compliant digital signing solutions.
System Integrator and Ecosystem Partnerships
The company worked with system integrators who brought Dedoco's solutions to their own clients, effectively extending the sales reach without a large direct sales team. Ernie credited ecosystem partners as the source of recent customer wins.
VC Network Referrals
The venture capital network proved to be a meaningful customer acquisition channel, with at least one recent customer coming directly through a VC recommendation. This reflects the value of strategic investors beyond just capital.
Decentralized Value Proposition for Regulated Industries
Dedoco's pitch that it did not store customer documents on its own cloud, instead registering document hashes on blockchain, resonated strongly with regulated industries such as financial institutions and government agencies that have strict data sovereignty requirements.
COVID-Driven Digitization Tailwind
The pandemic accelerated demand for digital document workflows, and Dedoco used that window to engage businesses actively looking to digitize operations, positioning its blockchain-based approach as a more trustworthy alternative to traditional e-signature platforms.
Best Quotes
“So if you look at a lot of enterprise blockchain use cases, it's all about document management, like supply chain related. So there's a lot of document flows when it comes to blockchain consultants and enterprise projects. So what we are looking to do is to create a SaaS that empowers any company to be able to tap onto that feature and to be able to put documents on blockchain that are verifiable, that are tested by different individuals”
“So they're paying about $30 on average for individual license. So that's a basic license for the basic features on our platform, which includes our document signing as well as the document management on blockchain.”
“begin the prices will be on an annual basis. So we, we, we, we charge like a annual fee instead. So those are averaging around, I think about a $100,000. So we got two or three of these larger clients for annual that pays the annual subscription.”
“So our last round, we closed $2,000,000 our last round. It was a seed round.”
“So because we thought that this industry is growing fairly quickly and we want to catch the wave where everyone is trying to digitize their business. So, and we need that to scale fairly quickly. So we needed to hire a bigger team and to scale up our marketing, scale our business efforts, right? So definitely we think fundraising in this case is quite important for us to really scale it up.”
“We have about 30 people right now.”
“Well, the main proposition here is we have a decentralized proposition. So what that means is number one, we treat the document separate from the document evidence process. So we can decouple that because we use blockchain to register the document hashes such that it becomes immutable and hard to tamper with.”
“as long as you hold a copy of the signed document, you can verify it off our verifier, which is a blockchain link verifier. So that difference means that if I were to provide a document to my auditor or to a third party like a bank and they need to verify the authenticity of the document and the document show, they can do it on their own. They can directly do the verification without trusting a piece of paper that I gave to them.”
“The last two. I guess it's it's actually true ecosystem partners. So like the system integrators I mentioned, we also work with other partners in in in the, like, you know, in partners network basically. So the last two that we closed, one is through our actually through our VC's recommendation. So the VC network, I think, is also quite important for us.”
“Stripe. I guess the Stripe guys, I think are people that we really look to. We want to be kind of like the API providers for document processes.”
What Happened Next
This interview captured Dedoco at an early stage, just months after its platform launched in July 2021, with 40 enterprise customers and a freshly closed $2M seed round. The figures here reflect what Ernie Teo reported in November 2021 and should be read as a historical snapshot. For the latest recorded revenue, customer count, funding, and team size, visit Dedoco's company profile on GetLatka.
View Dedoco’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction: Ernie Teo and Dedoco
- 0:16What Is Document Process Management on Blockchain
- 0:57Pricing: Individual Licenses at $30 per Month
- 1:20Platform Launch Timeline
- 1:37Customer Base: Registered Users vs Paying Brands
- 4:14Enterprise Annual Subscriptions at $100K
- 6:03Fundraising: $2M Seed Round Closed July 2021
- 6:44Why Raise Capital Instead of Bootstrapping
- 7:15Team Size: 30 People, 20 Engineers
- 7:36Dedoco vs DocuSign: The Decentralized Difference
- 8:45Growth Channels: Partnerships and VC Network
- 9:55Product Vision: Verifiable Documents on Blockchain
- 10:36Famous Five: Inspirations and Habits
- 12:14Closing Summary
Introduction: Ernie Teo and Dedoco
Nathan Latka
00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Ernie Teo. He's the co founder and CTO of Dedoco. He has a PhD in economics and game theory and has taught in universities and worked at IBM Blockchain Research. Their company is document process management on blockchain. Ernie, ready to take us to the top?
Ernie Teo
00:15>> Yeah, I'm Nathan.
What Is Document Process Management on Blockchain
Nathan Latka
00:16Okay. So what does document process management mean on top of blockchain?
Ernie Teo
00:21>> Right. So if you look at a lot of enterprise blockchain use cases, it's all about document management, like supply chain related. So there's a lot of document flows when it comes to blockchain consultants and enterprise projects. So what we are looking to do is to create a SaaS that empowers any company to be able to tap onto that feature and to be able to put documents on blockchain that are verifiable, that are tested by different individuals
00:46>> along the business process. And that allows visibility across the ecosystem, across different partners and counterparties.
Pricing: Individual Licenses at $30 per Month
Nathan Latka
00:57And Ernie, what are companies paying on average monthly to use this technology?
Ernie Teo
01:04>> So they're paying about $30 on average for individual license. So that's a basic license for the basic features on our platform, which includes our document signing as well as the document management on blockchain.
Platform Launch Timeline
Nathan Latka
01:20And when did you guys launch the business?
01:24When did you write the first line of code?
Ernie Teo
01:26>> We started the business last year in March. So the first lines of code was written in around June last year, and we officially launched the platform in July this year.
Customer Base: Registered Users vs Paying Brands
Nathan Latka
01:37Very cool. Congratulations. And how many customers are you now working with?
Ernie Teo
01:43>> We have about a thousand registered users on our SaaS platform, but we are also working with enterprise customers. So enterprise customers in Singapore, for example, some financial institutions, property agencies, and even government agencies are using our platform.
Nathan Latka
02:00How many are paid customers?
Ernie Teo
02:04>> So the enterprise users all paid customers for the
Nathan Latka
02:09How many of those are there though? Are there a thousand?
Ernie Teo
02:14>> No. So there are Okay. So for one of our financial institution customers, there are about, think 300 registered users within the company. That's one example. We also have property agencies that
Nathan Latka
02:30are Ernie, What I'm trying to understand is how many brands pay you as a customer, not registered users under the brand. How many individual companies pay you?
Ernie Teo
02:39>> So for brands right now, I would say around
02:48>> 30 to 40.
Nathan Latka
02:50Okay. And those 40 brands, they each pay you $30 a month or it's $30 month per user per brand?
Ernie Teo
02:57>> So for brands, we have a different pricing model. We go by credits. So we charge, we sell each brand credits to use under the company. So, and credits can go anywhere between, so the standard price is about $5 per transaction.
Nathan Latka
03:16Okay. So $5 and then transaction, one transaction is one credit?
Ernie Teo
03:21>> Yeah.
Nathan Latka
03:22So how many credits are these customers using on average per month on the platform?
Ernie Teo
03:29>> Well, I guess around the number of a 100, yep.
Nathan Latka
03:33Okay. So I can take a 100 uses times five each. Each of these 40 brands is paying about 400 or $500 per month.
Ernie Teo
03:44>> Yeah. I guess for the bigger brands it's around a 100 and there are some smaller businesses as well. So on average, those would be like 10 to around 10. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
03:55Okay. So can I I mean, can I take 40 customers times a $100 a month? You guys are doing about $4,000 a month in revenue right now.
Ernie Teo
04:05>> Yes. In terms of the SME customers, I guess, the smaller size customers, but they are like the,
Enterprise Annual Subscriptions at $100K
Ernie Teo
04:14>> begin the prices will be on an annual basis. So we, we, we, we charge like a annual fee instead. So those are averaging around, I think about a $100,000. So we got two or three of these larger clients for annual that pays the annual subscription.
Nathan Latka
04:36Okay. Got it. So 300,000, if you look at that monthly, you guys are doing more like $30,000 a month right now on revenue, $360,000 a year or something like that. And you've done that fairly quickly. So in the past sort of twelve months, where did you get these first sort of forty, fifty customers?
Ernie Teo
04:53>> A lot of it is happening locally here in Singapore, but we have also expanded now to the region, including Malaysia.
05:01>> Well, we started off by partnering with the Singapore government because the Singapore government rolled out a certificate authority for digital signing and we partnered with them to incorporate that onto our platform. So that got a lot of use cases in terms of government agencies as well as property agencies because they are interested, you use this feature. And then also because I guess it was COVID, so we got to talk to a lot of people who are
05:32>> interested to digitize their business and we provide quite a interesting value proposition because we are using blockchain and by using blockchain, we are providing a proposition where we don't store the documents of our customers on our cloud, rather they provide their own document repositories, which we tap onto. So there's no third party that's actually hosting the documents rather we are hosting the document evidence and processes.
Fundraising: $2M Seed Round Closed July 2021
Nathan Latka
06:03Understood. And so you get going, have you guys bootstrapped the business or did you raise capital?
Ernie Teo
06:07>> We raised capital.
Nathan Latka
06:09How much did you guys decide to raise?
Ernie Teo
06:12>> So our last round, we closed
06:17>> $2,000,000 our last round. It was a seed round. And
Nathan Latka
06:22what year was that?
Ernie Teo
06:24>> This year. So we closed it around the same time as So we were fundraising from the start, but we closed that round in July when we launched the platform.
Nathan Latka
06:33Okay. So $2,000,000 seed round. And why did you and Daphne, your co founder, why did you decide that you needed to raise capital? Why couldn't you bootstrap?
Why Raise Capital Instead of Bootstrapping
Ernie Teo
06:44>> So because we thought that this industry is growing fairly quickly and we want to catch the wave where everyone is trying to digitize their business. So, and we need that to scale fairly quickly. So we needed to hire a bigger team and to scale up our marketing, scale our business
07:07>> efforts, right? So definitely we think fundraising in this case is quite important for us to really scale it up.
Team Size: 30 People, 20 Engineers
Nathan Latka
07:15And what's your team size today? How many folks?
Ernie Teo
07:18>> We have about 30 people right now.
Nathan Latka
07:20Three is your how many of those are engineers?
Ernie Teo
07:25>> About close to 20. Yep.
Nathan Latka
07:2920. And so how does this work? If someone's listening right now and they're currently using DocuSign, why should they switch to Dedoco?
Dedoco vs DocuSign: The Decentralized Difference
Ernie Teo
07:36>> Well, the main proposition here is we have a decentralized proposition. So what that means is number one, we treat the document separate from the document evidence process. So we can decouple that because we use blockchain to register the document hashes such that it becomes immutable and hard to tamper with. And then the second proposition is because it's a decentralized, the verification process is quite different, right? So with DocuSign, you need to be one of the document
08:07>> preparers or one of the signers to access the system to get the document evidence or to download the certificate of signing, for example. So for our case, as long as you hold a copy of the signed document, you can verify it off our verifier, which is a blockchain link verifier. So that difference means that if I were to provide a document to my auditor or to a third party like a bank and they need to verify
08:36>> the authenticity of the document and the document show, they can do it on their own. They can directly do the verification without trusting a piece of paper that I gave to them.
Growth Channels: Partnerships and VC Network
Nathan Latka
08:45And how are you finding these customers? Is it through the partnership with the Singapore government?
Ernie Teo
08:53>> We have various channels that we are working on now because government is one channel, but with partnerships as well. So we we work with various system integrators to partner with them so that they can bring our solutions to their clients as well. Mhmm.
Nathan Latka
09:10Okay. Got it. What are some of the growth channels that are really working for you? Like, the last two customers you got, what channel did they come from?
Ernie Teo
09:18>> The last two. I
09:23>> guess it's it's actually true ecosystem partners. So like the system integrators I mentioned, we also work with other partners in in in the, like, you know, in partners network basically. So the last two that we closed, one is through our actually through our VC's recommendation. So the VC network, I think, is also quite important for us.
Nathan Latka
09:49Very cool. What's next product wise? Are you gonna stick to document signing or what's next?
Product Vision: Verifiable Documents on Blockchain
Ernie Teo
09:55>> Actually the vision for the company is the whole realm of verifiable documents. So, and that's very blockchain related as well. So like for example, COVID vaccination certificates, these are going online through blockchain based certificates as well and allows verifiability. So we want to bring this verifiability to the business world so that any business who wants documents they produce to be verifiable, checkable. So verifiability, I mean, we can verify that it did come from this company and
10:28>> that the contents inside the document are not tampered with. So that's a very important follow-up to look at automating business processes.
Famous Five: Inspirations and Habits
Nathan Latka
10:36We're certainly rooting for you, Ernie. I hope it goes well. The meantime, let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business book?
Ernie Teo
10:44>> Well,
10:47>> favorite business book. Actually, I'm more of the tech side, I-
Nathan Latka
10:54We'll say none then.
Ernie Teo
10:55>> Number two
10:56>> is what you're
Nathan Latka
10:57following or studying.
Ernie Teo
11:01>> Stripe. I guess the Stripe guys, I think are people that we really look to. We want to be kind of like the API providers for document processes.
Nathan Latka
11:10Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building Dedoco?
Ernie Teo
11:16>> Well,
11:19>> I guess we use GitHub a lot. A lot of our code are written from scratch. So because it's it's a, enterprise level system. So, you know, we use the usual tools like GitHub, Jira, etcetera.
Nathan Latka
11:35Number four, Ernie, how many hours of sleep do get every night?
Ernie Teo
11:40>> Well, I try to get my seven to eight hours.
Nathan Latka
11:42Okay. Fair. And what's your situation? Married? Single? Kids?
Ernie Teo
11:46>> I'm single.
Nathan Latka
11:47Okay. And how old are you?
Ernie Teo
11:51>> I'm 42. Yeah.
11:52>> 42.
Nathan Latka
11:53Last question. What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?
Ernie Teo
11:58>> Well,
12:03>> I guess, okay.
12:07>> Maybe like how to do business, like how to grow a business and how to actually manage people.
Closing Summary
Nathan Latka
12:14Guys, there you have it. Dedoco launched just about a year ago. They're now working with 40 customers doing about $30,000 a month in revenue. They want to be basically the API tool for everything related to document signing, verify it on blockchain. They've raised $2,000,000 in their seed round to grow 30 on the team so far, heavy engineering with 20 folks over there. Ernie, thanks for taking us to the top.
Ernie Teo
12:35>> Cheers. Thanks.
Nathan Latka
12:37One more thing before you go. We have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM Central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. We call it deal or bust. One founder comes on, three hungry buyers, they try and do a deal live and the founder shares back end dashboards, their expenses, their revenue, ARPU CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it and the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday 1PM
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