Yeah but the product is not ready to sell yet for more generic use cases. There is more work that needs to be done and we're estimating that right now on how much effort is required to make it production ready, and if we can bootstrap ourselves or to look other ways.
I said, beware of give access to internals of your technology. Because, this is your value NOW. Later, when you will have many customers, they will be additional part of value.
Sure, you should decide yourself, to whom you could trust, but for me now, all looks too clear - they just want to assimilate your technology, or if lucky, assimilate all your command with technology. I cannot decide, if this is good for you from what I know now.
Yep, thats correct. We're considering another way of approaching this after receiving good advice from the communities that I asked the question and also brainstormed this with my co-founder. Will share more details soon.
Thanks for your effort on compiling this response for us, I appreciate it. I will try to answer your questions.
>>They have demand for their services
>How do you know? Do they have demand for their services or do their clients keep asking them for something similar to your product which they don't have which lead them to you in the first place?
They use something similar to our product, in this case Microsoft Power Apps, and in some cases for certain clients they want to use our solution as it is easy/fast and affordable to implement for their needs.
>>they want to sell our solutions, after polishing it
>What polishing exactly is there to make and who does the polishing? I bet that the first and probably the only polishing is to slap a big logo or "Provided by X" company and removing any sent of yours.
Mostly complete implementation of some unfinished features such as Connectors and Workflows and also general bug fixes.
>>They want to see the option where they would take care of these expenses, through a payroll from they're existing company.
>:D :D :D Obviously don't become their employee.
Sure, that was only a discussion between me and one of their founders and they mentioned it as alternative.
>>We however opened a company and want to keep it, but try to involve them in our company with some kind of equity structure or something
>Why are you even talking about equity here? If there' any conversation, it should be about you considering hiring them to sell your product, and comparing them to many other organizations who can do that for you. On commission, or something like that. Think of them as a sales organizations, or a recruiting agency and so far they haven't made any sales or provided you with any successful hire yet (job to be done). They claim to have many clients they can sell your product to, your reaction should be "Show me". Start with one sale and see where it goes.
The product is not yet on the final stage (Workflows, Connectors which will be needed for implementing use-cases for them). The idea was to be able to work on this full time, and to take some kind of investment from their side. I thought it as a form of pre-seed funding but separate it on chunks / pay every month.
>>they are interested in helping us with business development, bringing us clients, and the sales part, so we can focus mostly on implementation/tech parts
>Helping? OK, then tell them to bring you a client.
That would be the case if the product is in the final stage. Maybe my bad for not mentioning it in a more clear way on the original question.
>>They have tremendous experience in different industries
> How do you know? Did someone there tell you?
I had a long conversation with them and they told me about their experiences. I double checked that through Linkedin.
>>and experience working with big corporations
>The pitch started with them selling to smaller clients.
Thats correct that the pitch started with them selling to smaller clients. I meant to kind of tell more about their credibility , as that would benefit us in term of growing this into a more solid company.
>>Also, they have 50 people working for them and they are saying that they can share some of their resources with us.
> To do what, exactly?
Mostly business development, that would be their personal time (the owners). They have lot of people that use existing similar tools and we can benefit on terms of product development as well. But we need to clear this up in a more details.
I agree with other points and will consider them if we come to an agreement, and make sure to outline them in writing also.
> Do you have clients and are you generating revenue? Have you already made a few sales?
We have one client already using our finished parts of the platform. They're paying us $250 monthly.
>We have one client already using our finished parts of the platform. They're paying us $250 monthly.
Nice! I hope you realize that you're in a position few attain: someone paying you, and $250 at that.
I wouldn't think in terms of the "finished parts" of the platform, more users will bring insights into what's worth implementing and what's not. There's already a user who's getting enough value to pay you $250 monthly.
I also recommend his book, "Traction", in which he goes over several channels you could test to get traction.
You proved that you had someone pay. The next step is to have many pay.
How did you get your first user? How did they sign-up and how did they pay? Has someone else signed for that purchase/subscription or was it self service? Did you walk them through/onboard them? How much did it cost you? Where did they come from? How can you attract similar users (same sector, same function/role)? Is the user willing to recommend the tool to their network of peers? Does the user go to a conference/events to meet with peers (same role/function or adjacent)? Would it be interesting to target that?
You're at step 3 (Prove it can be sold), the next step is to "Find repeatable sales motion", etc. You can watch the video and it explains the steps well.
I've received another response from
Blind platform since I've posted the se question there as well. It says "There are 200+ LCNC platforms and this is a very competitive sector. Keep your day jobs and bootstrap until the product is ready. Have them refer you to one of their customers and pay them a flat one time referral fee. Make money and grow your own customer base and work on getting real investors - partners will follow."
What do you guys think about this as well?
Thanks for your response.