Eric Laughlin on the rigidity and plasticity we can expect from technology

Eric Laughlin is the CEO of Agiloft – the no-code contract and commerce lifecycle management software company.

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I think, as everything changed, people had to have had sort of two insights: one insight is that the world changes more rapidly than I even thought that it could. And then the second thing is, I, as an individual, as a human, was able to adapt more quickly than I thought that I might’ve been able to.

And that sort of plasticity that we discovered in the world and in ourselves, I hope has allowed everybody to, think of a sort of positive outcome from this pandemic, which is, it allows people to be more, imaginative about what the future might look like. and that should have implications for the way that we work.

And for the way that we have our family life and our personal lives, but it certainly has implications for the way that we think about technology. What technology we choose, what we think that technology does, how long we think we’ll use that technology and, the rigidity or sort of plasticity that we expect from the technology.

In this episode you’ll learn about:

• What is contract lifecycle management?
• The benefits of no-code technology – from an implementation, design, and adoption perspective
• From the legal ops perspective why you should consider all software instead of just legal tech solutions
• What Agiloft plans to do with their $45M investment
• Eric’s experience as a new CEO – his onboarding experience and his leadership focus for the next few months

If you’re sitting in a law firm or if you’re sitting in legal ops, you might be thinking, what are my legal tech options? You certainly should be thinking: what are my technology options, not what are my legal tech options. And especially in something like contracts, where, there are many people outside of legal department who have their hands in contracts every day, whether it’s the procurement department or it’s sales operations, those are either your partners in the law firm, or they’re working in parallel with you on different contracts.

You can find Eric on LinkedIn and find out more about Agiloft here.

Agiloft Secures $45 Million Growth Equity Investment from FTV Capital

Names Accomplished Legal Tech Executive Eric Laughlin as CEO to Accelerate Growth in No-Code Contract and Commerce Lifecycle Management Software Company  

Redwood City, Calif., August 17, 2020 – Agiloft, the global standard in no-code contract and commerce lifecycle management, today announced a $45 million growth equity investment from FTV Capital, a sector-focused investor in innovative companies in enterprise technology and services, financial services, and payments and transaction processing. Bootstrapped since its inception and profitable, Agiloft’s investment from FTV is the company’s first round of external funding and will be used to build on its leadership position in the rapidly growing enterprise contract and commerce lifecycle management (CCLM) space as it accelerates its AI-based product development and expands its vertical and geographic market presence. Agiloft’s no-code platform drives industry-leading configurability and automates complex enterprise workflows through an iterative design process at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional software.

In conjunction with the transaction, Agiloft appointed Eric Laughlin to the role of CEO, effective immediately. Laughlin most recently served as global leader of legal managed services at Ernst & Young, LLP, where he managed the Pangea3 and Riverview Law teams and provided clients with technology and service solutions in the contracts, e-discovery, and compliance domains globally. Founder and former CEO of Agiloft, Colin Earl, will remain with the company as chief technology officer, overseeing product development, engineering, security and technology infrastructure and providing strategic guidance to the company.

“Colin and his team at Agiloft have built a unique company, emphasizing customer-focused execution and a culture of trust and transparency — all built on a foundation of technical excellence,” said Laughlin. “The result has been steadily accelerating growth and consistent profitability. I’m honored to have been chosen to lead Agiloft in the next chapter of its development. A big part of my role will be to grow the company while maintaining the elements that have made it so successful.”   “Eric not only has a track record of success, growing and leading large global organizations, he has the vision, domain expertise and integrity to lead Agiloft in its next phase of growth and product innovation. The search took over a year–and it was well worth it to find the right individual.” said Earl.

Named a leader by Gartner in its 2020 Magic Quadrant for Contract Lifecycle Management, Agiloft has reported 134% growth in new sales thus far this year, an implementation success rate of 99.6% and has a loyal customer base of more than 600 customers, including Honeywell, CDW and Roche. Its adaptable contracting software is built on a no-code platform, allowing organizations to customize complex contract and commerce workflows without writing a single line of code. A robust AI engine simplifies the intake and organization of existing contracts and also identifies the level of risk in documents and clauses. The result is cost discipline in procurement, quantifiable reductions in revenue leakage in sales, and visibility into contractual risk and regulatory compliance for legal departments. The platform is easily extensible to the commercial processes adjacent to contracts such as spend management and integrates with enterprise systems.

“Agiloft has established itself as a trailblazer in the fast-growing market for contract and commerce lifecycle management software,” said Alex Mason, partner at FTV Capital. “To develop a no-code product that customers love, while prioritizing profitable growth without external investment, is a remarkable achievement. We are proud to be a collaborative partner to the Agiloft team and look forward the exciting journey ahead.”

“With digital transformation moving at the speed it is today, contract management solutions that are well-scoped and executable are mission critical,” said Abhay Puskoor, principal at FTV Capital. “As businesses continue to find new efficiencies and ways to reduce costs, contract management will play a significant role in adoption of automation, and Agiloft’s highly configurable no-code platform will enable automation at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional software. We welcome the opportunity to connect Agiloft to the enterprises in our Global Partner Network who will value the measurable ROI that the platform delivers.”

As part of this transaction, FTV Capital’s Alex Mason and Abhay Puskoor will join Agiloft’s board of directors.

About Eric

Agiloft CEO, Eric Laughlin, has over a decade of leadership experience running legal software and tech-enabled services business serving Fortune 1000 clients. Prior to Agiloft, Eric was the global leader of Legal Managed Services at Ernst & Young, LLP. His organization, including the Pangea3 and Riverview Law teams, provided EY clients with technology and service solutions in the contracts, e-discovery, and compliance domains globally. Before EY, he was managing director of the Corporate Segment within Thomson Reuters, responsible for information, software, and service offerings for corporate legal departments. His career at Thompson Reuters included posts as general manager for Serengeti (e-billing & matter management software), consultant in the Global Strategy function, and marketing leadership roles. Eric earlier worked in marketing at 3M, and sales & business development at About.com. He began his career as a consultant for the Parthenon Group. Eric has an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University. He lives in the Seattle area, and is an avid runner and skier.

About Agiloft

As the global leader in contract and commerce lifecycle management (CCLM) software, Agiloft is trusted to provide significant savings in purchasing, enable more efficient legal operations, and accelerate sales cycles, all while drastically lowering compliance risk. Founded in 1991, Agiloft’s adaptable no-code platform ensures rapid deployment and a fully extensible system. Using contracts as the core system of commercial record, Agiloft’s CCLM software leverages AI to improve contract management for legal departments, procurement, and sales operations. Visit www.agiloft.com for more.

About FTV Capital

FTV Capital is a growth equity investment firm that has raised nearly $4 billion to invest in high-growth companies offering a range of innovative solutions in three sectors: enterprise technology and services, financial services, and payments and transaction processing. FTV’s experienced team leverages its domain expertise and proven track record in each of these sectors to help motivated management teams accelerate growth. FTV also provides companies with access to its Global Partner Network®, a group of the world’s leading enterprises and executives who have helped FTV portfolio companies for two decades. Founded in 1998, FTV Capital has invested in 115 portfolio companies, including Docupace, Egress, Enfusion, InvestCloud, ReliaQuest, Riskalyze, Sunlight Financial, and VPay, and exited companies Globant (NYSE IPO), HCS (acquired by Ally Financial), and WorldFirst (acquired by Ant Financial). FTV has offices in San Francisco and New York. For more information, please visit www.ftvcapital.com.