Problem with my open-source startup

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kiW9qmNlJ9oQZM6r5o4_N54sX5F8_ccwCy0zpGh3MXk/edit

by Shank • 4 years ago

6 5 4 years ago

docs.google.com

gbrown_• 4 years ago

Whilst the title is verbatim it may be worth adding something to note this to do with the mold linker.

sys42590• 4 years ago

I think it has been said in the past on HN that open source in itself is not a business model. It can be part of a business model to keep a community around a specific variant of the software, but most of the attempts to switch to a more restrictive source-available type of licence are usually met with a massive shrink of the community and potentially a fork if the product had enough traction (see e.g. Elastic vs OpenSearch).

My approach would be to land a high paid tech job using the traction my product has, potentially being paid part of my time to work on it while it still stays open source.

Alternatively, you might think about maintaining a more restricitvely licensed premium version that has features so compelling above the community version (and everything else on the market), that corporations would love to pay for it.

Another point hindering big corporate from incorporating your product into their pipeline might be the bus factor. What happens if you break both arms? Who will do the bug fixes?

So building a cash producing start up around an open source dev tool is one of the hardest things I can imagine except for maybe consulting work around the tool itself.

rurban• 4 years ago

Switching to BSL 1.1 for mold would be perfectly fine for me. Or the ones asking for macOS support should hire him, working on that.

simne2• 4 years ago

I think, now is not exist big enough niche for just ordinary compilers (tools) for cpu, after Eclipse there are only combine products, ide+compilers+tools in one.

But mathematics is shared (or very similar) with ultra-focused and at the moment alive niches of tools for gpu, fpga, or even game engines and 3d render engines.

For example, OpenGL community constantly struggle with tools issue, and people pay money for proprietary products or even switch to proprietary DirectX world. Similarly, game engines customers pay for customization.

So I think it worth to try pivot, to some of these niches, or to other.

simne2• 4 years ago

And I agree with sys42590, that it is very hard to change habits of other people, when you accustomed them for something free.

Anyway, if you interested, we could talk and cooperate, to make some money on really good thing.

Problem with my open-source startup

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