We've been contacted by several people asking to be international distributors of our software and I wanted to know if anyone has ever done this? Any advice or things to watch out for? Why do you even need a separate distributor if you sell software?
Ask HN: International software distributors
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Re: Ask HN: International software distributors
#2I worked for a company that was an international distributor.. basically they'd try to sell implementations of said software, and make a profit on the project. They'd also sell training, etc.
It works for stuff like ERPs or other highly customizable software.
It's also very important if you need to win government bids, etc., if your company is not registered as a supplier, then you NEED a distributor who is.
Re: Ask HN: International software distributors
#3I worked for a company that was an international distributor.. basically they'd try to sell implementations of said software, and make a profit on the project. They'd also sell training, etc. It works for stuff like ERPs or other highly customizable software. It's also very important if you need to win government bids, etc., if your company is not registered as a supplier, then you NEED a distributor who is.
Are there any risks or downsides to going through a distributor?
Re: Ask HN: International software distributors
#4I worked for a company that was an international distributor.. basically they'd try to sell implementations of said software, and make a profit on the project. They'd also sell training, etc. It works for stuff like ERPs or other highly customizable software. It's also very important if you need to win government bids, etc., if your company is not registered as a supplier, then you NEED a distributor who is.
Are there any risks or downsides to going through a distributor?
Yes, of course. Your reputation becomes tied to them, for one.
Is this your company? https://www.fastqs.com/
Did you get to speak with the people that want to distribute your software?
I'm not qualified enough to advice you either way, I hope you take it with a grain of salt :)
Re: Ask HN: International software distributors
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are there any risks or downsides to going through a distributor?
Yes, of course. Your reputation becomes tied to them, for one. Is this your company? https://www.fastqs.com/ Did you get to speak with the people that want to distribute your software? I'm not qualified enough to advice you either way, I hope you take it with a grain of salt :)
Thank you so much for your insight. Yes, I'm one of the founders of FastQS. We haven't spoken to distributors yet, but we've been contacted by several of them already. We'll explore this option but we want to make sure we're ready for this.