I am new to bubble. I have a friend who asked me to prototype a bubble app for the company he works for. they are going to sell this app to their customers, expanding their customer base, and hope to make thousands per month (huge potential) because of this app. my friend paid me a small amount ($500) to put some time (20 hours) to prototype the app they need. is there an appropriate way to present the option of pivoting to some sort of subscription model to this custom app instead of just trying to be paid as an hourly freelancer? my thought is that if I price it correctly, they wouldn’t just take the work I’ve done and run, plus this is my very good friend. I have already put over 80 hours into it, so if I just turn it over (ask to be paid for the extra hours and hopefully ongoing future hours) to them, they can either continue to use me, or, of course just come here and find an experienced developer to take over, or even just start from scratch, now that I have proven that bubble totally works to create the app they need.
Hello!
This is what OpenAI’s chatGPT has to say about your inquiry. I find myself asking these types of questions more and more to this ai. I hope this helps a bit. 
ask AI about ethics, lol. interesting answer, but would love to hear from a human, with lots of experience developing apps, and what is appropriate and what makes me a creep for even asking, lol.
I see these kind of questions all the time.
A lot of developers think that their work is fundamental to the succes of a product. We can debate about nuances but in the end, the hardest part is execution and traction. Going from an idea toward paying customers, dealing with all the mess in between those two stages of which programming is often (not talking about groundbreaking IP kind of coding) the most straightforward task of all. It is a costly and time consuming one, however. That’s why Bubble is so handy.
I would make sure that everybody in the proces was super happy with your work and move on. If they want your help again, you are free to propose another type of contract. And if you want to be compensated more, make sure you have proven and demonstrated that you have found ways and implemented those that help increasing sales and reduce customer complaints. And that you did so without you being told to do so. That’s when you start becoming a entrepreneur and that’s when you are becoming more valuable to anybody.
I think that another question behind my question is “how much would it cost them to go out and find another developer to do what I did from scratch” . I would want to be competitive in my value, not only in pricing, but in ways that can’t be measured in money, as you suggested. I think if I structured the offer correctly, they would rather lease vs own the software anyway.
darn it, was just reading this and then poof, deleted?
The answer lies in the first five words of your post. You are new to Bubble, as I or anyone else has been. So I know the feeling But you will soon learn that thinking that way you are making 2 mistakes here. 1st is to back off from your commitment and contract (Unless nothing was decided between both parties). 2nd mistake is thinking that you deserve more equity in that software than you were paid as a developer.
As a developer I also get that feeling sometimes, but I know that development is the easiest part of any project (as @sem mentioned above). The hardest part is to sell. If you have google and you can’t sell, you get zero value from it. Also, there are a million developers in any given country but we don’t see millions of startups making millions. Also, over 90% of startups fail within their first year (or first few years). Why? Because my friend setting up a business is just the 10% of work. Selling is the 90% work in building a business.
Regarding the payment, if I have committed for a full project at a set price (fixed or per hour), I’d never ask them to increase that in the middle of development. That’s like blackmailing them into paying more. But since I don’t know what your terms are with your friend or his company, I’d say it’s up to your better judgement to decide how to handle this situation 
Yeah, sorry. I posted from the wrong account 
he said I exceeded his expectations (very sweet and encouraging person), but yeah, blackmail seems to be the feeling of such a suggestion to pivot. I guess if it’s voluntary, then it’s not blackmail though. would let them make the call and be happy to continue in either capacity, frankly. seems like developers are highly paid if they are talented and figure out how to not be underpaid. sometimes price competition is a race to the bottom, but supply and demand always dictates a market. thanks for the feedback. 
I still don’t know if your friend was asked by his company to make this prototype, or if he is doing this voluntarily in order to show proof of concept for his own idea. If they asked for it, and provided direction, and you built on their vision then it’s their idea and creating it for yourself or creating a copy without their permission seems somewhat unethical. However, if it’s your friend’s idea then you two can make a kick-ass MVP and sell it to his company for big bucks 
Also, in either case you can also ask for a monthly retainer for ongoing maintenance and work. This is an ideal situation if the company commissioned and paid you (directly or through your friend) to build it. Also, since this is a new contract, you can also demand higher price and they will most probably pay it since you know the software the best as you are the one who built it.
So what you could propose is a monthly package for $X amount for, let’s say, up to 10 hours of work a month ( $X could be any amount you like: double the hourly price * 10 or whatever rate you see fit) <---- That “up to” is the key here so you still get paid $X amount even if only 5 hours of work is required. And you could still charge the new price on an hourly basis for hours beyond those 10 hours. Retainers are actually really popular with freelancers and smaller agencies and work well for most.
this
trying to make something to bring in more money for the company he works for, but it’s between him and I right now. he works for them and I work for him, lol.
Now that makes things clearer. I’d say you talk to your friend and become partners. Make the MVP, sell it to the company and you both make good money. Party Time!!
Your advice is always spot on man 