
Ask HN: As an individual developer, how to sell your software to a big company? - soulisonfire
I have developed a good stack of software and I have a working prototype.
There are 2-3 competitors out there but this stack is <i>much</i> ahead in features set.<p>It was fun developing this project since it&#x27;s inception. My initial goal was to go startup way.<p>But its been a long run for me (finances) and currently I lack sufficient energies to push ahead.<p>How can I make most of this stack from where I stand ?<p>Have a list of small-medium-big companies who might be interested.<p>And of big five, have emails of teams&#x2F;managers who are in slightly similar space.<p>Should I reach out to them directly ? I am trying to weigh best options.<p>Pls advise.<p>PS: I don&#x27;t live in US.
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coinjobber
Three things:

\- Do you have real IP/patents? If not, a "working prototype" is probably
going to be hard to sell.

\- What specific business problem does it solve, and who is the person with
the budget who is trying to solve it. Reach out to them. A "team" trying to
solve a similar problem is never going to buy a solution (manager will no
longer have a team...).

\- Alternative to selling is to offer to do contract work for these companies,
using prototype to help close the deal.

~~~
soulisonfire
IP/Patents ? no.

What it solves ? it is efficient, saves man hours and can make existing
platform attractive.

Team solving never going to buy solution ? Hmm yes and I fear they might just
get their team to work on it.

Contract work ? I will consider. But how can I ensure they are not going to
just know/copy my idea and build it in house. Having a knowledgeable engineer
in a meeting is sufficient to understand where lies the guts of my software.

~~~
nunobrito
Sorry to say this, you don't have a negotiation position.

At worse, they will fool you thinking they will buy something, just to extract
the deeper details and then think they can do it on their own as you mention.
Happens often.

Best bet is being hired to join their team, albeit I'm not sure how pleasant
that would be for you. If you see a company/manager that you want to join,
this might be a good opportunity.

In either case, your intuition will be the best help. If you don't feel you
can trust someone you are negotiating on this topic, very likely you won't get
a good outcome.

