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Ask HN: What to do if your first customer ask for shares of your SaaS?
3 points by firemelt 9 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments
so I did some consulting works for a company, making software to help them doing their business so that they doesnt use excel to tracking everything, like invoice, a transaction progress, delivery, accounting parts and etc.

and I see a chance that this piece of software could be sold again as saas

problem is this first customer think that to do that I need to give them some share since I learn about the business area and business process from them, how is the correct way to handle this?

I know this is my mistake I should act as a saas company/startups since the beginning instead doing a software consulting job

from the story that I found the internet one of the over is giving them one time purchase or lifetime update instead subscribing like any other users

iirc some startups do this for their first 10 customer

and also for the notes the boards at the company that I do the consulting jobs, say that they have many relations and connections about the same type of company and this boards could introduce me and gives me lead to more users currently I only know them




I recommend to contact a lawyer [friend or family] because you should check many private details.

One question is if the code is yours. In intellectual property it is yours as an author but that does not mean your customer could not have rights depending on the written or tacit agreement.

If I were you I would be prepared for that conversation with a legal professional and not continue the discussion with your customer about this topic until things are crystal clear.

I also recomment to post in sites as https://law.stackexchange.com/ and Reddit.


Maybe they'd accept "I give you a 20% (lifetime) referral fee for the next 10 customers, if you referred them to me or not". That's 20% of revenue but it has a limit and still gives them motivation to either active or passive help you grow. Active could be they send you potential customers, passive could be they give you a great testimonial for your website. They wouldn't own part of your company and structuring such a contract should be straight forward compared to company shares.


You need someone to look at your consulting agreement. This is largely about IP ownership. Happy to take a quick look if that's helpful.




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