

Ask HN: "What happens when something happens to you (you get hit by a bus)?" - single-founder

I am a single-founder living outside of US and working on a SaaS app, which is beginning to show some decent traction. The application serves a segment which currently does not have other affordable players, with matching feature-set.<p>One of my clients, who is a contractor in US, now wants to deploy my app for one of his big clients. The concern now is on the long-term aspects, like what if I go out of business or if something happens to me, which I believe is a valid concern.<p>In the event that I go out of business or something happens to me, my clients have the option to continue to use the service for an indefinite period (they are the administrator for their deployment, paying their hosting bill, but cannot download the code). They can at any time take out their data in a standard exportable format, which they can easily import again into a new application they can build as a replacement to my app, if and when they so desire.<p>I plan to highlight this aspect.<p>Other options like taking in a co-founder or forming a bigger team can have further questions like "What if you both get hit by the bus?" or "What if they go on a team-trip and the bus falls down a cliff?" or "What if there is an earthquake and the roof collapses?".<p>So, I would like to hear your options, which you might have tried out in such scenarios and have seen to work out well, like..<p>- Using a source-code escrow service (any reliable services which you might recommend?)<p>- Selling a source-code license (what are the precautions when taking this route?)<p>While trusting clients with source code licenses is one option, I am not sure I will be able to verify if the client (or one of their employees) break that trust. And when multiple licenses are given out, it is hard to find the source of the leak.<p>Suggestions welcome.
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mb_72
I am not in the exact same situation as you (I work as an independent
developer and have several clients), but here's what I did - I made an
agreement with a friend / previous business partner (who has similar
development skills to me) that each of us would be the 'emergency stand-in' in
case of illness / death of the other. Our agreement covers short-term
maintenance of applications, and negotiating with the clients to find another
'full-time' person. We have shared passwords / information about SVN
repositories / assembla spaces and so on, but it would also have been possible
to leave this information with a lawyer and only have it made available to the
other person if necessary (in case the clients are nervous about someone else
having access to 'stuff' without need).

The chance of both of us being 'out of order' simultaneously not so
significant (we currently live in different parts of the planet, so the 'team
bus' situation doesn't apply), and this agreement was welcomed by all our
clients as it provides a good layer of safety from their point of view.

This arrangement is not perfect, but - based on trust - is 'free' and
extremely reliable.

If you don't have a friend you can rely on in the same situation, perhaps you
can find someone in the same tech circle (or via HN?) and then go the 'you get
all the necessary info to continue on EXCEPT the passwords lawyer way'?

~~~
single-founder
Thanks for sharing the detail. Remember reading about a service which would
send out saved emails, in case there has been no "I-am-alive" check-ins for
some time. Using such a service combined with help from a trusted friend, does
seem to be a good option.

~~~
mb_72
Welcome, and I believe you are thinking about this:
<http://www.deadmansswitch.net/>

