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Comment by gnicholas | Hacker News Reader

I run a one-person company [1] whose tech makes reading on screen easier/faster/more accessible. The B2C tools (iOS app and browser plugin) bring in 5 figures, but in 2019 the IP licensing took off.

We have large educational clients that are integrating the tech because of its benefit for students (especially those with ADHD and dyslexia). IP licensing is great because it means I don't need to spend time building the integrations myself, and I don't have any costs attached to the licensing deals, so it's pretty much all profit. In 2020 the IP licensing will greatly exceed the B2C revenue, and we may even make the B2C tools free at that point.

1: www.beelinereader.com

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Do you think it makes sense to sell instructional content under IP licensing for basic education institution? I have produced a lot of basic infosec awareness materials this year I could be revamping to make suitable for teachers and school administration. Payment would be done once a year, more or less aligned with a new pack release which would contain updates/new content.

Just to clarify, would you be selling to K12 or higher ed? This could wrap into a "media literacy" package, which is taught in K12.

My gut reaction is you would not want to position this as IP licensing if selling to schools. We do IP licensing to edtech/education companies, but our school offerings are all software/SaaS. I think schools would find the notion of IP licensing to be a mismatch, which would create friction even if the offering itself is a good fit.

Basic education, mainly. All levels except higher-Ed. Yes, the idea is to wrap it into digital literacy/citizenship modules that teachers could be using in their classes as complementary topics.

I'm struggling to find the right way to position this as a service in which the client/user can work, edit, deliver the content or part of it without having commercial ownership over it, e.g. cannot resell my content to 3rd parties.

Selling into education (especially K12) is tough, and many startups have died on that hill. The sales cycle is slow, budgets are limited (unless there's a specific line-item for what you're selling, which is possible since "digital/media literacy" is popular these days), and billing can be problematic.

If I were you, I'd find other companies that are already in the space, see what they offer and how they price/sell, and either mimic them or consider joining forces in some way.

That's awesome. Just FYI the link to the Firefox extension at the above URL is a dead end.

Ah, yeah thanks I need to fix that, thanks!

Your ios app have very less reviews 20 and very low. Could you please explain how many downloads you re getting and how you are generating 5 figure.

Congrats!!

Most of our revenue is from our Chrome extension. And most of the negative reviews are people complaining about us not offering features that Apple prevents us from offering (like system-wide support).

I would love to have this in as part of `getpocket.com`. Maybe you could reach out to them about licensing it.

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