I've been asked to build software. Should I accept it as a job, or ask if I can own & license it?
Hello all,
I'm in the happy position where I've been asked to build software for my university. It's implied I'll be an employee, but I could also suggest building it for free, owning the code, and licensing it out to them.
If they don't want to pay $x per student, then I could give them a perpetual license. This'd be cheaper than them paying me for development time, and I would also own the product, which I could (potentially) sell to other universities.
What do you think? To employee (Secure! I need to pay rent), or to hustle? (Insecure, but exciting)
I think they won't pay you $x per student, because universities are like a big, slow-moving company, they wanna know how much something costs each year to make a budget.
Maybe there is a third option. Give them a slightly reduced price and ask If you can have the rights to sell it to other universities. If you succeed you split the profit with them 50:50 or whatever.
I'd feel out the 2nd option but that depends on how long you think they'll use the software for. They could use it for 1 year then choose to scrap it and go with something else the next.