Intuit, maker of financial products like Quickbooks and TurboTax, has a stated purpose of trying to be “the operating system for small business.” Today, it took another step to solidify that position with its planned acquisition of Docstoc, which over the years has created one of the largest directories of documents for building a small business.
Intuit has been on a bit of an acquisition spree lately, acquiring companies like FullSlate, Level Up Analytics, and GoodApril in the last six months alone. All of those acquisitions are based around providing better technology and more tools to small businesses.
This acquisition is no different, and it wraps up a neat little success story for Docstoc, which has spent the last several years helping small businesses get off the ground. The company was founded way back in 2007, and was one of the first TechCrunch 40 finalists, as a repository for user-submitted documents for small businesses. But while it still has a sizable number of documents provided by users, about 20 million by last count, over the years it's transitioned to produce its own content.
That includes not just all the documents one might need to get a small business of the ground, but also videos, tutorials, classes, and other educational information. In all, Docstoc now has more than 20,000 pieces of content that it's produced, and it's adding more than 300 new pieces each week.
In addition to its main site, which brings in some 16 million uniques and has 40 million registered users worldwide, Docstoc also has a few side businesses. A year-and-a-half ago, it launched a site called License123 to provide businesses with all the licenses they'd need to be compliant with local regulations in their home cities. And earlier this summer it made an acquisition of its own, bringing on professional services and software recommendations company BestVendor, which it combined with its own ExpertCircle business.
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