Ask HN: SaaS founders how often do you get requests for buying your source code?

2 points by jbchoo 6 years ago | 3 comments

I got one request today.

So yesterday P emailed us using @gmail.com email account requesting for a demo. In the email, P claimed to be from Athens, Greece. That's fine, we are based in Singapore. We can figure out our time differences.

Today I had the demo with P over Google Meet.

Mid-way through the demo, P offered to buy our source code. I'm skeptical of P's intent because it's coming from @gmail.com email account. And upon asking for his company's name and url domain, he avoided my question 2 times at least.

Before ending the demo, P emphasized that our software product is what he wants in Greece. I politely responded that I will discuss with my partner.

After the demo, I sent P an email to politely reject his offer.

My gut feeling tells me that it could be an organised scam. Do you have similar encounter?

pedalpete 6 years ago |

I haven't experienced this as a scam. Doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware. I've often had requests for my source code and "why don't you just open source it", often ignoring the thousands of dollars it costs to operate the services per month.

I wouldn't get too excited about it unless P can give you some details as to why he wants to buy it, history of being able to successfully commercialize, etc. etc.

If P has the ability to provide your product in Greece, why not try for a partnership/sales agreement rather than buying the source? Once they buy the source, that's it, it's gone.

jbchoo 6 years ago | |

Great idea. Partnership/sales agreement. Thanks for sharing.

One part of me finds it hard to establish trust, not to mention make deal, with people using public email domains like @gmail.com @hotmail.com etc...

pedalpete 6 years ago | | |

I wouldn't worry too much about the public email. There are a few reasons people do this. Sometimes companies do this to appear smaller than they actually are, sometimes, people are investigating on behalf of another business, sometimes they have businesses and forward their email to their personal, etc. etc.