Ask HN: Huge enterprise customer wants to see our source code
Well, having worked for a small software startup that did just that, I can tell you what we did.We agreed to letting them audit the code with conditions.1. The audit happened on our computers with someone from our team in control (me). I locked the computer when I wasn't physically there to watch what they did.
2. We removed the most sensitive part of the code and told them what it did. We kept the method signature.
3. All of the source code remained on my laptop and my laptop was never attached to their network.
4. We could tell them that we would not answer any question they asked.
5. They paid for expenses and time. It lead to a decent sized contract.It lasted about 2 days for a medium sized Java application. They asked one or two questions I wasn't allowed to answer and took it well when I told them so.I am not a lawyer but you can also ask for a non-compete and or a non-disclosure from their individual employees that will conduct the review. Get your lawyer on that before you do it.It is up to you or your company to decide what to do. No one can tell you if it a good or bad decision for you. At least for me and my company, it worked out. As far as I know the auditing company never developed a competitor and was a customer of my company for a long time to come.