Ask HN: Selling software to local government? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Selling software to local government?

7 pointsbardolph4 comments

There is a task that my local county government performs on a continuous basis that employs two people full-time. It consists of receiving information printed on 4x6 cards, typing it up, and adding it to a database.

It it a problem that would be easy to solve with a bit of software, and I'd like to write and sell it. I know several people that work for the government in question (and around people that do the task in question), but I don't know how to proceed.

I am a 19-year-old college student. How can I get a contract to create and sell this software? Who is the person to talk to, in general, about this sort of thing?

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I'm in a far away country and culture, but still I can tell you, you just can't. I spent years fantasizing how various offices would work faster with some software. After a long time I realized it's not a software problem, it's all about management. If you have a proper manager, then for him to decide a software is needed is as simple as hello. If he/she doesn't exist, there's nothing you can do.

The little marketing you can do is find the (very few) cases where good management just arrived and try to pitch.

Start donating a ton of money to local politicians.

Being a political ally would work as well. Seek out the controlling faction, show up at their social and political events, and offer to help on campaigns. Of course, when you find that doing that works to your benefit, you might feel dirty enough about yourself that you'll decide to go find one of the many businesses that have equally bad systems and are willing to simply pay you for your work because you can solve their problem and save them money.

Second this. Go to some fund raising events, shake the right hands, hand out some cards. Depending on how big your town is, you may be able to just contact a local lobbying group and ask who to talk to.

As tin foil hat as it may sound - bribery and corruption is rampant in governments especially the small local ones.

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