Has anyone purchased a project before? What are your experiences?
I'm consider purchasing a project from a developer/small team. The project has a few customers but could do better. What did you consider beforehand? What experiences did you have with the purchase? Technical as well business experiences are of interest. 🙏
Thanks
Only buy it if you can work with the technology stack or have a team that knows how to work with it. Make sure the functionality that exists in the project is as completely built out and works how you THINK it works. A lot of times you'll see things that technically work but realize they were poorly and only partially built - you'll discover this quick when you starting dealing with all the support requests from users who can't do quite what they thought they could.
You can consider offering the original developers a percentage of ongoing revenue in return for a lower purchase price. (If price is a concern).
I'd put in a clause that says you can get feedback and support for 3-6 months after purchase in case you have questions or don't understand how/why they coded something the way they did.
Make sure you get any related social media profiles in the agreement too, all digital assets (design/code), analytics data, etc.
That's my two cents.
Hey Micah,
You got some very good points I think.
With the technology stack I'm partly familiar - could be better. Jumping into the deep end is fine. That's how I usually approach new tech.
Testing the functionality is still open - so far I've discussed business basics (customer base, churn, etc.).
Verifying if the functionality is really what I expect and works stable is a good point. I'll also raise the question with the follow up support - that's a very good idea for the hand over period.
Thanks for your detailed response Micah!
-- Peter
I think Micah's answer is spot on, and there's nothing much to add.
I don't have experience as buyer, but I do as a seller. I have sold a few projects in the past, and I always used a platform with Escrow service. I also wrote detailed documentation, put any extra assets in order, and offered one month post-sale support. Depending on the project, one month could be insufficient in your case.
You must be able to trust not only the project, but also the team that made it. Or have the possibility to directly assess the code quality. No matter how good the idea, a poorly made project will become unmanageable and quite possibly a big loss.
Yeah, I'm awaiting the NDA for a code review now. It should be done today, latest tmr. Definitely a poorly developed project can become a massive burden. I'm keen to avoid this.
I am not a buyer but a developer sold a project previously. The main thing that you have to confirm is as previously said, the technology stack. If you can get a developer who you can trust and give you point blank the review of the code written. From a developer perspective, maintaining a code that is not good or shabby is not an easy job. So it would be better if you could also think from a maintenance and adding features perspective.
If you already have a team who are capable enough to handle the tech stack, ask them to take a look at it and see if the pattern, coding strategy and other things are understandable. If not get it clarified before you proceed.
Also dive deep and see the underlying 3rd party services they are using and see how the charges would be after you purchase it. It should not be a free or reduced pricing when its billed by them and pricing increases for you once you change the ownership.
Yeah, buying a project you can't handle is definitely an issue. I'm planning to work with a contractor on enhancing the platform and expanding the functionality.
Please sign in to leave a comment.