客户想收购旧 SaaS 应用——明智之举还是冒险？
2 分•作者: AbbeyRoadRunner•6 个月前
我们是一家小型软件公司，过去 15 年来一直致力于开发一个面向文化活动的特定 SaaS 平台。该产品运行良好，但我们计划在明年对其进行重建。
最近，一家知名的全国性品牌（非科技公司，但从事零售业务）联系了我们。作为其公关策略的一部分，他们每年在其本土举办一次中型文化节。
他们希望使用我们的平台，但坚决拒绝授权。他们过去有过不愉快的经历，供应商要么提价，要么消失，让他们陷入困境。
我们目前正与其他公司一起参与竞标过程。据我们了解，大多数竞争对手都是创意机构，他们可能会：
* 从头开始构建；或者
* 将过去类似项目的白标化。
我们估计，从头开始构建这种活动应用程序的成本约为 60,000 美元。
我们目前考虑的方案有：
1. 向他们提供我们当前代码库的快照，不提供支持、引导或保证。
这并非理想选择——他们需要聘请其他人来花费时间理解架构和逻辑，然后才能开始实施或定制。考虑到我们已经对产品了如指掌，这既缓慢又浪费。
2. 向他们提供代码快照，并就他们要求但我们尚未支持的额外功能单独收费。
根据我们的估算，如果外包开发，他们的成本将在 13,500 美元（乐观估计）到 38,000 美元（悲观估计）之间。
3. 与上述方案相同，但我们不会直接向他们提供代码，而是将其托管在他们选择的律师事务所的托管账户中。
如果我们倒闭，或者突然将价格提高三倍以锁定他们，他们有权发布源代码并继续与其他供应商合作。这让他们安心，而无需预先进行完全转移。
*向 HN 提问：如果换做是你，你会怎么做？*
欢迎提供任何战略、技术或法律方面的见解。是否有人经历过类似的情况？
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We’re a small software house that’s been developing a niche SaaS platform for cultural events over the past 15 years. The product works well, but we were thinking to rebuild it for the next year.<p>Recently, a well-known national brand — not in tech, but operating in retail — approached us. As part of their PR strategy, they run a medium-sized cultural festival once a year in their home country.<p>They want to use our platform — but with a hard no to licensing. They’ve had bad past experiences where vendors either raised prices or disappeared, leaving them stranded.<p>We’re currently in a bidding process, alongside other companies. From what we understand, most competitors are creative agencies likely to:
• build something from scratch, or
• white-label past projects from similar events.<p>We estimate that building this kind of event app from scratch would cost around $60,000.<p>The options we’ve considered so far are:<p>1. Give them a snapshot of our current codebase, with no support, onboarding, or guarantees.
This isn’t ideal — they would need to hire someone else to burn time understanding the architecture and logic before they could even begin implementing or customizing it. It’s slow and wasteful, considering we already know the product inside-out.
2. Give them a snapshot of the code and charge separately for the extra features they’ve asked for (that we don’t yet support).
Based on our estimates, development would cost them between $13,500 (optimistic) and $38,000 (pessimistic) if done externally.
3. Same as above, but instead of giving them the code directly, we place it in escrow with a law firm of their choice.
If we go out of business, or suddenly triple our rates to lock them in, they’d have the right to release the source and continue working with another vendor. This gives them peace of mind without requiring a full transfer up front.<p>*Ask HN: What would you do in our shoes?*
Any strategic, technical, or legal insights are welcome. Has anyone navigated something similar?