

Ask YC - Selling software to large companies - thisisnotmyname

I spend a substantial amount of time working with a particular type of bioinformatics data which is collected and organized by about 5 companies.  During a recent painful session, I had an idea for an interface that would greatly improve the experience.  It is quite simple, but also quite novel.  I mocked it up and showed it to some other people who work in the same area as I do, and they all agree it is an improvement over what is available.  I would love to try to sell the interface to one of the companies who work in the area.  My question is, has anyone ever tried to sell software to a large company?  Is it possible to protect your idea even while shopping it around?
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tstegart
This is always a tricky questions, because some companies do have a habit of
stealing ideas. But at the same time, its not like people go out of their way
to steal. I'm sure if your work can save them time and money and its not
overly expensive, then there's no reason for them to try and steal it. On the
other hand, if one of their guys can just implement what you did, some
companies might just do the work themselves after seeing your idea.

You might want to pay a little bit more attention to branding if you're going
to try do this. That sounds like a weird strategy, so let me explain. Right
now its just an interface, and someone can look at that and say "yeah, one of
our guys can do that next week, so we'd rather not buy it." The more you work
on branding, the less easy that becomes. Instead of just having an interface,
you have the "X" interface. So when people talk about the interface, they'll
be talking about the "X" interface. Everyone will know its connected to you,
and what a good job it does. It makes it harder to steal when it has a name
and identity.

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tristmegistus
I've sold software from a small start up to automotive companies. Enterprise
sales have longer sales cycles. Plan for 6 mo. to a year to navigate the
purchasing system and users at the companies. We used a prototype to get in
the door and generate interest. The users and customers at these companies
provided valuable feedback for product design. Developing a product that meets
the needs of these customers we met was they next key step. Sadly the venture
I was involved with failed this step.

As far as them 'stealing' your concept, many large companies do not want to
spend their internal capital budget to build tools and would rather focus
those resources on their 'core competency.' That means buying commercial tools
can make more sense in their budgets than building something on their own. In
fact, our product development got a boost from one internal R&D team who lost
their budget, and asked us to take the code they had developed and build a
product. Then they would buy it from us using their ample remaining tools
budget.

