Agreed, those four barriers are barriers for me as well. However, I'd note that enterprise startups all face and must overcome the same obstacles. (I'm sure you

Agreed, those four barriers are barriers for me as well. However, I'd note that enterprise startups all face and must overcome the same obstacles. (I'm sure you know this, just stating it for others who might not) In particular, proprietary is not a sine qua non. Some enterprise companies open source a figleaf to assuage proprietary concerns, while others simply stay proprietary. If you're a product manager and want to use Aha, you just have to use Aha and go with their pricing tiers (including 30 day free trial) and claims of security. There's no open source Aha. That hasn't stopped them from being popular. Funding and courting early adopters can go a long way towards neutralise 1 ($ and momentum imply a longer lifetime) and 3 ($ implies can hire other devs). Nothing ever removes the risk of a company cancelling a product, but that's the nature of products even from BigCos like Google and Microsoft. Even open source can be abandoned.