Startup Idea #005: The $4.2M Pontential Opportunity Hidden in Approval Delays

AI document workflows → Small businesses escape manual approval bottlenecks

The Hidden Crisis in Every Growing Business

Walk into any thriving company and ask about its biggest operational pain point. Chances are, you’ll hear about document approvals. Purchase orders are stuck for weeks waiting for signatures, expense reports are lost in endless email chains, and contracts are delayed because nobody knows whose turn it is to review. This isn’t just inefficiency – it’s the silent killer of business growth.

The approval process problem affects companies across all industries, with employees spending 30% of their time searching for documents, and poor document management accounting for 21.3% of productivity loss.

Companies lose an average of 15 hours per week chasing approvals, with manual approval processes costing businesses processing 3,000 requests annually upwards of £36,630 in wasted time alone. Meanwhile, the approval workflow software market is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2024 to a projected $3.5 billion by 2033.