So where did Jason get the idea for Docstoc.com?
“While I was completing my JD/MBA, I started a consulting company in Los Angeles with some alums of my MBA program. Between our need to share documents in graduate school, and the amount of time I personally spent on Google looking for docs for my clients, I realized there could/should be something like YouTube for Professional Documents. I wanted to create the most robust repository of free professional content for a wide variety of purposes.”
And what will be the future of Docstoc?
“I’m a big fan of linkedin.com and consider is (as most do) the premier online community to share professional contacts. It’s where most folks go online to find professional contacts. Similarly, docstoc will be the premier online community to share professional content. Anytime, anyone needs a business or legal document their first thought will be to go to docstoc. With this as the foundation of the company, we’ll add the ability to connect users with additional information, resources, and services to serve their professional needs. Looking for a document is just a starting point; WHY do you need that document. Those are the problems that we’ll help solve over time.”
But why would professionals give away their beloved templates (my precious)?
“Professionals upload their content for three main reasons. 1.) Its Free Marketing – it’s an avenue to attract business by sharing stock templates, forms, and documents that may be difficult to find. It’s no cost lead generation for professionals. 2.) Feedback and Viewership on your Professional Portfolio of Content – users upload their documents because they can get thousands of people seeing their work, leaving comments, ratings and feedback that is valuable to the content creator. 3) Reciprocity – there is a large ethos of reciprocity on the internet and many times we share because we want to add to the community and help it grow. Like most User Generated Content sites, only a very small percent of user typically ever share content, but for example in the case of YouTube, that <1% has contributed hundreds of millions of pieces of content – and documents are much easier to share than videos because we ALL have them.”
Yeah, yeah (looking down at my feet), those are great reasons. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on Docstoc.com as it grows.