The fact that someone wants to buy it proves you are wrong. $10K is nothing for a company. It cost them $10K to decide to offer you that much. Unless you really would not sell at any price, ask for a truly big price ($100K+ ?) and see what they say. The worst that happens is they say no and you are back to where you are now. If they didn't think they could grow your project to be worth millions, they wouldn't bother with you at all.
$10k is not the perfect price if you'd be reluctant to sell at even twice that. The perfect price, for a buyer, is the minimum price at which a seller is willing to sell.
The perfect price for a seller is the maximum price a buyer is willing to pay.
If the former is greater than the latter, no perfect price exists.
That's a fallacy assuming homo economics rationality, there can be valid reasons that accepting a lower price is more desirable than accepting a higher selling price.
There is in reality such a thing as dis-utility, which can mean any price over some $xx,xxx is actually less valuable due to marginal utility of each additional dollar actually being negative.
Wouldn't that only be if he had to work harder for those additional dollars? How could any higher purchase price have negative marginal utility in this case, realistically?
I know this is an unpopular idea, but even the belief that you're getting more than something is worth can cause negative emotions which is a negative marginal utility.
The marginal utility is really the sum of the economic utility of the dollar and the emotional utility, you can in fact have a negative emotional utility that is greater than the strictly economic utility of the dollar.
And to be honest, I don't think I'd ever have that feeling, but it can be a realistic phenomenon.
From your perspective I think the most powerful thing you can do is let them know you're willing to walk away. I don't know what to tell you to ask for in terms of price but I do know $10k is the starting point of the negotiation and is probably not their best offer by any means.
Don't automatically assume you have to accept their terms and negotiate on price. You can ask for anything you want. You don't get what you don't ask for. If it's a publicly traded company why not ask for stock? A stock deal might be more valuable than a cash deal. Something to consider.
You should counter with a price you would sell for then, and nothing lower. Otherwise what is the point of wasting yours or their time? They came to you. Go big or go home... especially given that you are reluctant to sell. This gives you leverage.
Yes. That's the perfect price.
> Do you think they'd pay more?
Probably not, but I wouldn't want to sell it even if they said $20k.
> Is this an aqui-hire? Are they bringing you on?
No.
> Have you thought about getting angel investors to maybe see this through and help you grow it?
The project is so simple that I don't believe anyone would ever want to invest in it.