Company: Pins Inc.
Industry: IT services for government contracting
Location: United States
Use Case: Automating state and local government RFP forms
Forms: Multiple state-specific attachments, including equal pay disclosures and minority employee reports that arrive as flat, non-fillable PDFs.
About Pins Inc.
Pins Inc. builds technology solutions for state and local governments. Each request for proposals (RFP) includes attachments such as equal-pay and minority-business reports. These forms vary by jurisdiction and require repeated entry of the same company information like addresses, contacts, and certifications – into non-fillable PDFs.
The Challenge
Pins Inc. processes 2-5 forms per RFP, handling about 20 forms each month. Every jurisdiction issues its own version, so reuse is rare. For instance, Minnesota RFPs include standardized Attachments A–E for compliance reporting, while Oklahoma packets often contain state-mandated forms such as the Affidavit for Filing with Competitive Bid and the Vendor/Payee Form (SAI Form 425). Manual filling using tools like Adobe Acrobat or Google Docs took time, especially for checkboxes, tables, and multi-page layouts. Earl Knight noted that while he could create fillable fields in other tools, auto-filling wasn’t reliable, leading to hours of work per RFP. With plans to scale to three RFPs weekly, this inefficiency risked delaying submissions.
The problem wasn’t just the time investment – it was the fragmentation. Earl needed multiple tools and multiple steps to accomplish what should have been a single automated workflow. And with approximately 20 forms per month across different RFPs, the manual approach simply didn’t scale.
The technical challenges were clear:
- Flat PDFs everywhere: Most government forms aren’t distributed as fillable documents – they’re static PDFs meant for printing
- Unique forms for every jurisdiction: California forms differ from Georgia forms. Atlanta forms differ from Athens forms. Each RFP introduces new documents
- No reusability: Even though company information stays the same, every form required manual data entry
- Time sensitivity: RFP response deadlines are strict. Spending hours on forms means less time on actual proposals
“Most of my forms will not be supported by your database because you need them to be interactive with some field already there, correct? How do we solve this problem?”
— Earl Knight, Pins Inc.
Earl was looking for a complete solution – not just form filling, but the conversion layer that had to happen first.
The Solution
1. Flat-to-Fillable PDF Conversion
The breakthrough came with Instafill.ai’s flat-to-fillable PDF converter. What previously required manual field placement in Adobe Acrobat or similar tools now happened automatically in seconds.
The AI-powered converter analyzes the PDF layout, recognizes text fields based on visual cues (underscores, colons, spacing), and generates properly positioned fillable fields. For Earl’s government forms, this meant:
- Text inputs automatically placed where forms expected written responses
- Checkboxes recognized and converted to interactive elements
- Tables properly mapped for row-by-row data entry
- Complex multi-page layouts handled without manual intervention
When Earl saw his first converted form, his response was immediate:
“That literally looks perfect. Yeah, this is literally exactly what I need.”
— Earl Knight, after seeing his converted government form
The conversion process took 25 seconds. The form that would have required 30+ minutes of manual field placement was ready to fill.
2. Creating Reusable Data Profiles
Once forms were fillable, Instafill.ai’s Profiles eliminated repetitive data entry. Earl created a profile containing Pins Inc.’s standard information:
- Company name, address, and contact details
- Tax ID and business registration numbers
- Equal opportunity and diversity certifications
- Insurance information
- Key personnel details
For each new RFP, Earl would:
- Open a PDF form
- Select his company profile and fill out the form with it
- Download a completed form
Total time: under 2 minutes per form. Previously: 10-15 minutes per form.
3. API Integration for Platform Building
As Earl’s needs evolved, so did his vision. He was building a comprehensive government proposal platform that would generate proposals, manage documents, and handle form-filling all in one place. Rather than rebuilding form processing technology from scratch, Earl integrated Instafill.ai’s API into his platform. The API documentation provided two simple endpoints:
- Create Session: Submit a form and data to start the filling process
- Retrieve Session: Check status and download the completed PDF
This integration meant platform users would get enterprise-grade form processing without Earl needing to maintain the complex AI infrastructure behind it.
The Results
Processing Time: Form filling reduced from 10-15 minutes per document to under 2 minutes.
Volume Capacity: Successfully processing 20+ government forms monthly across multiple state and local jurisdictions without manual bottlenecks.
Conversion Accuracy: AI-powered flat-to-fillable conversion achieved near-perfect field placement, with manual review available for unusual layouts.
Platform Integration: Instafill.ai’s API enabled Earl to build their platform with professional form processing capabilities without reinventing core technology.
The solution enabled Pins Inc. to scale proposal production without increasing administrative staff, freeing resources to focus on strategy and opportunity capture.
Key Takeaways
The partnership with Instafill.ai evolved from a simple subscription to an API integration as Earl’s platform vision matured.
What started as a personal pain point (too much time spent on repetitive form filling) became the foundation for a new product. By solving his own problem first, Earl validated the market need. By integrating proven technology second, he accelerated his time to market.
The government contracting space remains underserved by modern automation tools. Companies like Pins Inc. that recognize this gap and implement solutions gain a competitive advantage in response time, accuracy, and capacity to pursue more opportunities simultaneously.