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Jeremy Clarke’s entrepreneurial spirit has had the 2009 software engineering and computer science alumnus finding success with his second startup, and already forward to his next adventure.

His document automation and generation company, WebMerge, was recently acquired by Formstack, a workplace productivity company that’s transforming how people collect and use information. The acquisition will further enhance Formstack’s document automation product, Formstack Documents.

Clarke started WebMerge in 2011 to provide clients with tools to process automated contracts, applications and proposal PDF and Word documents. It now serves more than 3,000 customers in 80 countries and users have processed more than 75 million documents, saving millions of hours on manual document creation.

“I found a gap in the market. I knew customers who wanted the solution, and I leveraged that to jumpstart the business,” says Clarke. “Organizations across the world are spending significant portions of their annual budget to recruit and retain top talent, but they put those employees to work on manual, administrative tasks that don’t call on their unique abilities. Together, Formstack and WebMerge will help save organizations hundreds or thousands of hours on paperwork and free up their most creative minds.”

Formstack had been observing WebMerge’s success for several years, according to chief executive officer Chris Byers. He stated in a company news release that “from the early days of WebMerge, we have worked closely to develop powerful integrations between our platforms that allow users to not only capture information but make it actionable. This next step in our relationship will enable us to incorporate document creation and management as a core element of Formstack’s DNA.”

Clarke also was familiar with Formstack since he had been a software developer with the Fishers, Indiana-based company for four years, before devoting full-time efforts on establishing WebMerge in the marketplace.

He now is back on the Formstack team as WebMerge will become a critical component of the Formstack platform, but existing integrations, partnerships and functionality will stay intact. WebMerge will continue supporting customers who use other online form providers and third-party data sources, such as Salesforce, Zapier and Zoho.

Clarke started his first entrepreneurial enterprise, Vortex Web Solutions, before coming to Rose-Hulman. The company is still providing middle-market companies with an affordable alternative to utilize the web.

“I really enjoy creating something new and building things that people value,” Clarke says from his residence in Manhattan Beach, California. “It might be cliché, but I’ve always liked the adage ‘Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ While starting a business can be very stressful, with endless hours and a constant hustle, you have to really enjoy what you are building. As long as you are having fun and enjoying what you are building, your mind will help you forget those hardships and focus on the positives.”

He adds, “As an engineer, you get very excited building new things. However, from a business standpoint, you need to make sure you are solving problems that actually exist. You might be able to build a really cool software application or piece of hardware, but if no one needs it, you’ll waste a lot of time and money trying to sell it. Find a problem, then build the solution. Don’t do the reverse.”