Ask HN: Someone is offering to buy my side project

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7553879

by calvin_c • 12 years ago

13 14 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

At the beginning of the year I made an application for Google Glass that would manage a student's courses and home work assignments (www.myhomework4glass.com). It was my first time with Android development, and all together it took me about four weeks to build and deploy. So far it's got about 90 semi-regular users, which I'm very proud of, especially considering the market is so small.

Today I got an email from someone asking for the source code for the project, offering "a reasonable amount of money of [my] choosing."

Since there's no real market for Google Glass yet the project hasn't brought me any income other than a single $10 Paypal donation, but I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to sell out the source code. I just started programming about a year ago, so I've never had an offer like this before. I don't even know what I would value this code at.

Just wondering if anyone has some advice on how I should proceed, or how to value the code I've written.

ozh• 12 years ago

    [] I don't need money
    [] It's fun to work on this
    [] I have and will have time for this

2 checks or more: keep it. 1 check or less: sell it.

ben-gy• 12 years ago

Hmmm. This sounds a little too good to be true. My gut feel is that they are looking to get a peek at your source code, and they'll want that before they give you any money. Keep in mind what PG says about deals, assume that it's not going to happen and just keep doing what you're doing.

That said, this is a great, low cost way to experiment with this type of interaction. If I were you, I'd set some strict goals as if it's a genuine offer (e.g. minimum sale price, not showing any source code pre-receiving money, etc), and then see how it plays out.

I've been in similar situations to yours before, and It's been really valuable to learn and make mistakes at small scale. As soon as it becomes a pain and your not getting much out of the experience, just finish it up on your own terms. The important part being that you should know what you want if it was real, and what you want out of the experience. Then either way you have nothing to lose.

calvin_c2• 12 years ago

I was worried about that too, especially since there was little other information in the email. No matter how things go I'll be sure to finish the transaction before sending the code.

chrisBob• 12 years ago

It depends on your own goals. If you plan to maintain and market it then keep it.

I personally like building things, and starting things, but I am much less interested in marketing and making a business out of it. I would sell out in a minute and move on to the next project. I am not likely to worry about what it could have been later down the road or to get upset if I could have gotten more for it later.

codydabest• 12 years ago

Never sell to your first offer...unless its to google. If 1 person wants it, there's a very good chance 2 people want it. And if 2 people want it, they are willing to bid on it. Wait for at least a second offer. It will give your project time to grow.

amorphid• 12 years ago

Come up with a number for which you'd be willing to sell it. Then see what they're offering. Also, look into who wants to buy it. This might be a good person to partner with.

fsk• 12 years ago

Negotiating tip: Whenever possible, let the other guy name the price first. Let him say a number first. To you, "reasonable" may be $1000, but he might think reasonable is $10k.

You have a strong negotiating position, because no deal is fine with you.

You can use escrow agents and do the deal via a lawyer, if the money is big enough, if you're concerned he'll peek at your source code and then back out of the deal.

codegeek• 12 years ago

Whether you decide to actually sell it or not, I would recommend asking this person what is that "reasonable amount" that they are willing to offer ? They contacted you which means they are more interested in buying it than you are in selling it at the moment. So even before you get to the point of valuing your code, just ask them "what are you willing to pay" ? If they ask you back "what will you sell it for", you tell them "I am not really looking to sell but willing to hear your offer and I might consider it depending on what you offer". Don't give them anything more than that. Remember that "reasonable" is very subjective. When it comes to buying/selling/negotiating, don't work with subjective stuff. Ask for specifics. If they don't want to specify, then they are wasting your time. Put pressure on them to come up with a number first.

Again, they want to buy it rather than you wanting to sell it. Big difference. Make them do the dirty work. Let them talk more. Let them give you a number. Until then, sit back, relax.

If they do come back with a number, then you have a different set of things to think about. For now, let's not worry about that.

calvin_c2• 12 years ago

Thanks, that's a good place to start. Coming up with a number out of nowhere was stressing me out, but if he initiated the discussion I'm sure he has something in mind.

AznHisoka• 12 years ago

I have a feeling reasonable to him means $50 or $100.

JSeymourATL• 12 years ago

There's a Kubuki Dance aspect to this dialogue. They want to know if you're interested. You say sure, how interested are you? The path forward, first seek to understand who they are, what there motivations are. If they are serious, engage them in a live conversation, preferably face-to-face. Ultimately, the market value is determined by how much someone is willing to pay.

gregcohn• 12 years ago

If you're passionate about continuing to build out the vision of this project, you're probably not going to agree on a number. If you're happy to take a little cash for it and move on to the next idea, or even if you're not sure about the first point, I would put a reasonable number out there based in some measure on the value of your time in getting it built (ie, the amount of time it would take someone similarly skilled to replicate it), plus some premium.

Entrepreneurs always have lots of ideas, so you need to simply decide if this is in some way your "one great idea", or just an "easy come, easy go" etude.

jesusmichael• 12 years ago

Wow... the lack of business skills is thick in here. Don't ask them to "put a number on it", they can't be both buyer and seller...

What is your time worth? $100 bucks an hour? $200 an hour?

How much would cost you to recreate it? Are they asking you for a non-compete? Do they want exclusive ownership? or just asking for a license and you own the rights?

If this took you 4 weeks @ 30 hours a week and this is your first project... it would probably take someone who knew android 1 week (40 hours) @ $125 per/hr so $5K?

Ask some questions... develop a friendship with your customer... find out what they are doing and what they need it for and how they'll use it... use that to set a price.

This is a stepping stone... be greedy and it will get around... be a chump and that will get around too... If you think its worth $10k ask for it and be flexible when a counter offer comes in... you don't exactly have other offers floating around.

petervandijck• 12 years ago

If they don't want to make an offer, say you'll consider offers 30K or higher, and mention that with this offer, you've started looking for buyers.

Negotiate down to 10K if needed (but don't say that).

Don't go below 10K (it would cost them that to build it, and they'd have 0 users and 0 incoming links).

Ask HN: Someone is offering to buy my side project

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