The story of Contract Hound.

Hi, I'm Nicholas

Nicholas Holmes
Photograph by Marcus O’Leary

I'm the founder and CEO of Contract Hound.

If you’ve got a moment, and if you're curious, here's how I became the acting CEO of Contract Hound.

Before Contract Hound, I started as a sales leader at Google. I helped some of the world's best-known retail brands use Google products. My goal was to help these brands increase marketing ROI and reach new customers.

Life was good.

As strange as it may sound, I grew tired of working for Google. I could tell I needed a change, and I wanted to build something new. Something that could help people, something to fit a need that was unmet.

I quit my job and started Clippings.me. It’s a website builder for journalists, bloggers, and writers to display their writing portfolios. I coded the site myself.

Eventually, it grew to over 100,000 users, including people from the New York Times, BBC, and Sydney Morning Herald. Students from CUNY School of Journalism, Medill School of Journalism, and Stanford University loved the app as well.

Even though I loved my work, I really enjoyed helping people more on a personal, one-on-one level. Working at a smaller scale is simply more fulfilling for me. I like knowing who my customers are and knowing their names. Just like a local small business is there to help you.

In 2020, I sold Clippings.me and began my quest to find a way to use my skills to help smaller businesses. I wanted an opportunity that would take the skills I used to help Google, and other large companies. And I wanted to apply those skills to help smaller companies.

Basically, I wanted to do what I've always done. Which is building solutions for businesses (and usually coding it myself). But I wanted to apply these skills on a smaller scale, in a more personal way.

When I came across Contract Hound, it had everything I was looking for. The original founders started it in 2015. Although they had a small number of customers, the customers remained loyal to the brand for several years.

Why are Contract Hound customers so loyal? Because customers love that Contract Hound:

  • Makes it easy to create automatic reminders for your contracts.
  • Is simple to understand and easy to use.
  • Makes it easy to find and organize contracts.
  • Helps you quickly and securely sign and approve your contracts.
  • Is responsive to your needs with our support team.
  • Is affordable, because you don't pay for complicated features or extra bells and whistles you don’t need.

With my experience, I knew I could grow the business, make Contract Hound better, and help their customers decrease their stress managing contracts even more.

So in September of 2020, I bought Contract Hound. Then I immediately started reaching out to our customers. I wanted to know who they were, what problems they had.

I loved it. I could talk with Contract Hound users one-on-one. I'd ask questions and get immediate feedback on how to improve the product. When customers wanted a new feature or had a good idea to improve Contract Hound, I listened. I could turn around and start solving the problem right away.

Listening to feedback and improving Contract Hound is something I'm proud of. In my opinion, it's a big part of what makes Contract Hound who we are. This is why everyone at Contract Hound interacts with customers. Our job is to help you do your job better, and make your life easier. Our exceptional team is always at your service.

We hope you’ll consider using Contract Hound to help you never lose track of a contract again. Everything runs smoother with Contract Hound behind the scenes.

Working hard to serve you every day,
Nicholas Holmes, Founder & CEO, Contract Hound

BTW: I’m nicholas@contracthound.com if you’d like to get in touch by email.