web-development, sharesI have a friend that works for a company (as the IT guy) which uses an outdated management software and he offered me to develop a new software to replace the outdated one.
His job will be :
Walk me through current software, tell me exactly which functions are needed, tell me what needs to go where, whats the weakness points of the current software etc…
As company’s IT guy, he can convince the CEO of the company to buy our product.
More points to take into account :
My question is, how much percent of the sales should my friend receive? and could you please break down his share like this :
X% - negotiation X% - time for meeting X% - ….
I don’t want to write what I think and what other told me so I can get a true answer from you guys
He DOES give me an opportunity to make it big
How?
He’s offering you one client on a silver plate. At least purportedly - make sure there is management buy-in before you waste any time developing. Companies don’t change their management system on a whim. You need buy-in at all levels within the company: the CEO, the exec team, the middle managers, and the rank and file - plus Finance when there’s a CFO. The ROI related to your fee plus switching to the new system will need to be positive quickly, and you’ll want to demonstrate why that is.
What more, you’ve no idea whether other businesses have problems that are similar enough that your fancy new app will sell more than once. This alone makes it a huge risk for you, and it’s all the more reasons to meet the CEO before developing - in the event no one else wants this, you at least want to cover your costs by getting paid for your development time.
Your situation is not the same as having a marketer/sales around chasing clients part or full time so you’ve many examples of would-be clients that are all hungry to buy. That is a cofounder and deserves a healthy 50/50 split.
Your project, by contrast, is a non-starter IMHO if your brief description is anything to go by. (It sounds like an engineer in some medium to large firm thinks they’re wielding a lot more decision power than they actually have.) If you still move forward with it your friend deserves a commission at best.
You seem much more on the risk than he is, even if not counting that work division is also very unequal. I would think should absolutely get more but I am not sure about proportions.
Ignoring if taking this risk is rational or not, I’ll simply give you my opinion on splitting the share.
To make it fair to both of you, try noting down how much hours each of you two spend working on this project. Giving each of you the amount of money for which you worked would be the fairest approach, but it neglects your higher risk, as he is keeping is normal full-time job. Taking this into account, you should deserve a bit more, but splitting the share by percentage worked should be a great starting point.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.