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Lessons learned building an open source business
- sytse 11y agoI think that there are lots of companies making an open core model work. It is hard but if you can get to massive adoption like Elastic Search or Hortonworks you can generate significant income. I must admit that both companies are not profitable by a long shot as far as I know. At GitLab we're mostly close to but below cash flow break even.
- kjax 11y agoIt's also useful to remember that a business doesn't need to approach the idea of open source as an all-or-nothing proposition. In many circumstances, particularly with the recent emphasis on services and decentralization, companies might be able to comfortably open up some aspects of their core software. Well-built, internal software libraries or components which have good public utility but few opportunities for massive profits could be good candidates; there must be some sort of middle ground between keeping a stranglehold over all extrinsically valuable IP and opening your whole software stack to the masses.