客户想购买旧的SaaS应用程序——明智之举还是风险？
我们是一家小型软件公司，过去15年来一直在开发一个针对文化活动的细分SaaS平台。我们的产品运行良好，但我们考虑在明年进行重建。
最近，一家知名的全国品牌（虽然不在科技领域，但在零售行业运营）找到了我们。作为他们公关策略的一部分，他们每年在本国举办一次中型文化节。
他们希望使用我们的平台，但明确表示不希望进行授权。他们过去有过不好的经历，供应商要么提高价格，要么消失，导致他们陷入困境。
我们目前正在与其他公司一起参与竞标。根据我们的了解，大多数竞争对手是创意机构，可能会：
• 从头开始构建一个新产品，或者
• 将类似活动的过去项目进行白标处理。
我们估计，从头开始构建这种活动应用程序的成本大约在60,000美元左右。
到目前为止，我们考虑的选项有：
1. 向他们提供我们当前代码库的快照，但不提供支持、培训或任何保证。
这并不是理想选择——他们需要雇佣其他人花时间理解架构和逻辑，才能开始实施或定制。这既缓慢又浪费，考虑到我们已经对产品了如指掌。
2. 向他们提供代码快照，并单独收费以满足他们要求的额外功能（我们尚未支持的功能）。
根据我们的估算，如果外包开发，费用将在13,500美元（乐观估计）到38,000美元（悲观估计）之间。
3. 与上述相同，但不是直接给他们代码，而是将其存放在他们选择的律师事务所的保管中。
如果我们倒闭，或者突然将价格提高三倍以锁定他们，他们有权释放源代码并继续与其他供应商合作。这让他们安心，而不需要提前进行完全转让。
*请问HN：如果你是我们，你会怎么做？*
欢迎任何战略、技术或法律方面的见解。有没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?