Comment by karambahh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by karambahh | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I see two problems: * They don't know yet that their approach will fail * If you come to them with an already finished, they will realise it took you a very short time to build it: hence, they'll consider your solution is worth less

I don't think you can put a yearly cost of 15k$, if they already think 25k$ is too much. In their eyes, for the first 3 years (standard license duration in my field...), the TCO will be 45k$+hardware, which is even more unacceptable.

For the "exclusive" license, it all depends if your source code is actually re-usable by a third party...

What you can probably do is come up with a two-fold contract: 15k$ for 100hrs at 150$/h If the software delivered can run on the low-end hardware, company will save $24k/year. Developper is then entitled to a yearly payment of 12k$ for the first 3 years....

It's a win-win situation: if you fail, you still get the 15k$ and they still have a solution. If you can make it, you win 15 +(123) and they save (123)

Thanks!

I think their resistance to the idea or paying someone $250hr not to paying for a solution costing $25K.

I was thinking of licensing the solution as a library. I.e. "I can license you a library that does exactly what you need." They wouldn't know if I spent 10 or 1000 hours creating it.

They won't be able to ship their product without this problem being solved and their deadline is only a couple of months away.

With the above in mind, would you change your approach?

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out.

See comment by brudgers in this thread that's great

They will know you spent a small amount of time, because your champion has championned you as being able to solve the problem, not "having a ready made solution".

They won't be able to ship, but unfortunately, they don't know it yet. They might fear it, but the management probably won't admit it, because if they did, they wouldn't have set themselves in this trap in the first place...

The $250hr vs $25k makes think of an anecdote about Picasso (found no credible source online about it, sorry): During an event, he scribbled a figure on a napkin. The napkin was instanly worth serious $$$. "This will pay for my dinner" he said. The restaurant manager objected, saying "But it only took a few seconds to draw this!". No, he said, it took me my whole life.

I don't know if it's apocryphical or not, but I try to keep that in mind.

Thanks.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com