HACKER Q&A
📣 senderista

Selling a database engine as a solo developer?


After the database startup I was working at ran out of money, I spent 2 months working fulltime on the database kernel and made good progress, taking it in a rather different direction than I would have been able to at the company. I improved single-thread throughput/latency by literally 100x, to the point that I think it's faster than any generally available in-memory key-value database I know of. After some health issues that kept me from working for most of this year, I'm ready to resume work on the project, but I need to somehow make it financially viable, otherwise I'll have to find a "real job" to replenish our savings.

From what I've read on HN and elsewhere, selling tools to developers seems hopeless, so I'd like to target businesses instead. But I have no sales experience, have terrible people skills, and I'm sure I'd lose all motivation to continue work on the project if I spent most of my time selling. I've managed to identify about half a dozen small companies (none of which you've probably heard of) that sell to the embedded database market. Rather than try to compete with them, I'm wondering if I should pursue a reselling arrangement ("white label") that would allow them (under a non-exclusive license) to resell my product, with their branding and sales, and my (presumably indirect) support. Has anyone here tried such a "white label" arrangement for selling a database engine, or for any shrink-wrapped software for that matter (I can only find SaaS examples, where it seems quite popular)?

  👤 Cilvic Accepted Answer ✓
I can not speak to your specific questions, sorry. Maybe you had some contact with customers/prospects of the database startup you worked at?
👤 logicalmonster
Could the reason your DB is so fast because it's missing something in terms of safety/reliability that other databases do? That would be one thing I'd be concerned about hearing about a 100x performance increase.

Anyway, I don't know what might be the best monetization strategy for your specific niche, but here's a random idea. You need proof that this thing works and is worth using beyond one random guy saying "Trust me, bro".

Can you find one company who is willing to take a chance on your technology for free? Or maybe perhaps free for a generous time period like 5-10 years or something?

You'll give them access, give them some support to implement your database in their product, and even put something in your will about giving them a license to the source code for this database if you become incapacitated, reducing their risk.

The catch is that if they find your software useful (and I don't know what metrics you can use in a contract to determine this) they'll cooperate with you to help you put together a full-throated endorsement through cooperating with you to put together a full case study, do some social media with you, and give you some defined number of links or mentions on their website + blog.

Then you have something to point to for selling to other companies. "We did a trial run with Acme company and they got these results with our software. Here's the case study that shows from them how our software was so effective."