Glider

Glider was a Portland, Oregon software-as-a-service company that streamlined and added clarity to the process of negotiating and signing sales and business contracts. According to TechCrunch, the product was intended to replace large "reply all" email threads and spreadsheets containing dozens or hundreds of rows of tasks needed to complete a deal, letting companies manage sales contracts, non-disclosure agreements, partnership agreements and other contractual processes.

A company profile on Gust described Glider as "The First People-Driven BPM," positioned in the internet/web services industry, at a "Full Product Ready" stage with six employees and based in Portland, OR. The listed team included co-founding CEO Eli Rubel, co-founding CMO Justin Thiele (product/marketing), and senior engineers Cameron Stitt and Gavin McQuillan, with advisors Luke Kanies (Puppet Labs), Pete Grillo (Urban Airship board member) and James McDermott (formerly of Webtrends). Following the 2014 acquisition, the four-person Glider team joined FPX and continued working from Portland as well as Australia, with FPX planning to add staff to the product.

Founding story

Co-founder Eli Rubel set out to build a startup in Portland, becoming active in the local startup scene and at the PIE incubator, and met co-founder Justin Thiele and the rest of the founding team at a Portland Startup Weekend. After their first concept, the photo-album product Tell It In 10, failed to gain traction, the team drew on their own frustration with term sheets and contracts as entrepreneurs to build a contract-workflow product, which became Superbly and later Glider.

Business model

Glider sold a software-as-a-service product to businesses for managing contract negotiation, approval and signature workflows, including sales contracts, NDAs and partnership agreements.

Traction

TechCrunch reported total seed funding of $1.4 million and a four-person team at the time of the acquisition; a Gust profile listed six employees and a "Full Product Ready" stage. The product was publicly launched at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 Startup Battlefield.

Latest developments

In April 2014, Glider was acquired by Dallas-based sales software company FPX. Terms were undisclosed; the Glider product was to continue and grow within FPX, with the team joining the acquirer and additional hiring planned.