Pretty good overview from Baldur — I don't always agree with everything he writes but this seems relatively correct.
One question I'd ask him (and anyone else reading) is: what are some other options for monetization?
Over the last few weeks I had three different VCs reach out to me about some of the open source projects I've been releasing, and ask me if I'd thought about making a business out of them. I told them that no, based on the problem the software was solving, I didn't see how I could adopt open-core or companion-saas business models, and I wasn't sure how else it could be done while keeping the code open source.
Can anyone suggest a viable business model that would allow:
* Code remains at least source available, ideally open source for non-commercial use.
* I can charge for commercial use.
* Actually doing the licensing is reasonable, ie no spyware or phoning home from the tool.
Wouldn't need to be perfect, I understand that if the code is open source a company could easily fork and use it without paying me. The idea would be to make it zero-headache to pay me for a license if the code is being used by a funded team.
The projects:
* https://github.com/peterldowns/localias
* https://github.com/peterldowns/pgmigrate
One question I'd ask him (and anyone else reading) is: what are some other options for monetization?
Over the last few weeks I had three different VCs reach out to me about some of the open source projects I've been releasing, and ask me if I'd thought about making a business out of them. I told them that no, based on the problem the software was solving, I didn't see how I could adopt open-core or companion-saas business models, and I wasn't sure how else it could be done while keeping the code open source.
Can anyone suggest a viable business model that would allow:
* Code remains at least source available, ideally open source for non-commercial use.
* I can charge for commercial use.
* Actually doing the licensing is reasonable, ie no spyware or phoning home from the tool.
Wouldn't need to be perfect, I understand that if the code is open source a company could easily fork and use it without paying me. The idea would be to make it zero-headache to pay me for a license if the code is being used by a funded team.
The projects:
* https://github.com/peterldowns/localias
* https://github.com/peterldowns/pgmigrate