Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 59 posts

Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

#1

Post by apohak »

I am based in the UK. I work as a software/automation engineer in department A. Recently, department B bought software from a big-name company which uses yaml files to steer/control automation framework (think IaC). I don't work for/with anyone in dep. B, but they showcased their new software to few different departments (including mine) - hence I learnt about that software. Now, during presentation, it came up that while controlling everything through YAML files is amazing (thanks to git versioning, webhooks etc.) it was brought up that manging 100s of files and lines of code will be difficult due to amount of places to change single value. When discussed, it was stated that there is no plans to create any frontend by that company to manage all those files and this seemed to upset a lot of stakeholders. The software has been purchased and it's going to be rolled out anyway.

I see this as an opportunity to step in and sell the idea of creating frontend for this tool, however I don't want to do anything for free. Since I don't work in this department directly, I don't know how I should approach this. Perhpas I should create MVP first and engage with some stakeholders and see if they are interested?

Re: Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

#2

Post by BobbyTables2 »

IANAL, but if you are trying to profit from this, you’d probably have to leave the company and make the pitch from outside.

And if they think you developed it while employed, things could get nasty. Don’t want them thinking you’re selling their IP commercially either. Formalizing the idea while employed and then taking it outside could be trouble. Probably worth discussing details with a lawyer before attempting.

If you develop an MVP while employed and gain stakeholder acceptance, you likely won’t see any huge financial gains. Maybe a promotion, pat on the back, small bonus, or can enjoy the prospect this being more interesting work for a time.

Re: Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

#3

Post by erickj »

The legality of who owns that work will depend on your work contract and your local employment law.

You very well might create something, turn around to sell it to them, and find out that your employer legally owns the copyright to the work even if you did it on your own time with your own resources.

Employment law is nuanced.

Tldr; bring your work contract and your idea to a meeting with an employment attorney and ask them who would own this work.

Re: Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

#5

Post by Brajeshwar »

Besides all the good advices you will get here, including the legalese, a not-so-often mentioned thing will be “How good is your boss?” If your boss, the decision maker, so desires and agrees - this will be that you will work independently as a contractor and you earn better then being employed. I've seen that it is very common for contractors in UK to have their company (or Consultancy) and your company employ you thus saving on taxes. Your company gets into an agreemenet with your current employer/company and you work as the consultant/contractor.

Re: Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

#6

Post by nivertech »

U should be loyal to ur company and do it for free, especially that it’s such a low hanging fruit - 30 min using some AI tool

If it’s really that valuable to that company, u may get a bonus, salary increase, options grant, or a promotion

Otherwise, choose an employment arrangement where u fully compensated for yr time (and materials). Either an hourly employee or a consultant/contractor who bills hourly

Even better an engagement where u keep all the IP, and may resell to other companies/customers, but judging from ur description that’s far from being the case

Re: Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

#7

Post by interestoo »

I was in similar situation, at the time I was based in London working for company doing industrial control (so not software company but company using and selling software), maybe your case is different but if I was advicing to younger me I would advice to convince your departament to le me deliver this during work time or not to bother. I don't know if you have a clause in your contract that everything produced during work time or on work laptop automaticaly belongs to your employer, but even if you don't- weight if you'll get through politics to get your thing actually sold and not trialled or evaluated and then not actually rolled or simply ignored.. Anyways, good luck! Please post when all is over, I'm very curious if this was only my workplace with weird dynamics or maybe me not navigating :)

Re: Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

#8

Post by drekipus »

In the true business sense, you can see a need and fill a need.

But the thing to remember is that the other stakeholders have decided that it's not worth the investment for them. It might've upset others in meeting, but that's a temporary thing.

Especially when this is new fandangled software, they're not willing to risk the development costs just to make some front end.

You must look at yourself as another stakeholder in this business. You could ask for extra resources to build a front end and get more responsibility, but that's only if you can argue that it's worth it to the company as a whole.

Most employment contracts have some sort of line along the line of "All work you do this property of the company" anyway.

Usually the only way you can do this, is by making something on the down low and selling it to competitors

Re: Ask HN: Selling software to company I work for as an employee

#9

Post by GianFabien »

IANAL either. I believe that UK law would be similar to that in Australia.

To the best of my understanding, as an employee the IP of all work you produce is owned by the company. Even as a contractor you need rather specific contracts if your work for hire is not to be owned by the client.

My first reaction is to advise you to let the idea go. The most likely outcome is that you will do a huge amount of work and then get caught up in legal nightmares. Getting legal advice up front won't spare you from more drama down the track.

Assuming that there are many companies that use the same software and have similar needs, then you have the option of leaving, developing a MVP and then selling it to other companies first and eventually to your ex-employer. Even then there are risks of being accused of taking proprietary information to enrich yourself. Another scenario is that the big-name company could beat you to the market with a poorly designed but aggressively marketed alternative to your solution.

Post reply on HN