Hacker News Reader

Comment by opless | Hacker News Reader

I'd consider selling it. I'm sure there's a 100lb GIS gorilla that would snap you up. Have you tried waving it at them. I'm afraid the only one I know is MapInfo who I'm sure got bought out by Pitney Bowes back around 2005?

View on HN

Thanks. To sell to a larger company I think I'd need to build a small company first with at least a handful of employees. I'm trying to step away from this code if I can to focus on another app, and generally large companies only want to buy software that come with personnel.

It can't hurt to try. It's certainly worth sending some cold emails to some GIS companies.

I think you're presuming too much. As long as your code is documented and you're willing to release all potential IP claims as part of the sale I can imagine there would be someone interested in buying this straight out. You might even be able to sell them some kind of limited support/consultation agreement where you don't do code but can answer questions for a fixed period of time. It's not like you're doing some kind of business exit strategy. You're just selling off an asset from your portfolio.

Not essentially true, the valuation would just be a lot lower if you sold it As-Is + some level of cross-over support/training (Consulting Dollars)

This assumes the purchaser isn't just shelving it and killing off a competitor.

It't not an awful idea, especially since you know your competitors in the space (who to target).

That is not a very big gorilla.

True. But it's the first that came to mind.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com