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When open source projects get VC funding, it makes me trust them less. Eventually, the investors are going to want their money back with a profit. When that hap
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago
When open source projects get VC funding, it makes me trust them less. Eventually, the investors are going to want their money back with a profit. When that happens, the companies are going to try to monetize their offering often in ways that are detrimental to the open source project.
- makapuf 7y agoI'd say I trust more companies that already are earning money and open source something, it's less likely that they will bait and switch to a proprietary. Or some like mattermost or mariadb are clean about a possible business plan. Way better than a non standard open source license and vague prospects of VC money.
- xgulfie 7y agoAny VC funded company gives me this feeling. Twitter scaled up ads a whole lot to become solvent. Moviepass went from an amazing deal to an okay one. Netflix's content catalog and price went from great to okay. Facebook went from "Myspace but with photos" to the massive advertising machine it is today. The great-for-users but usually lossy beginnings of these companies are a play to acquire users, so they can pull the profit switch later on.
- farisjarrah 7y agoJust wait till Uber and Lyft investors start demanding profits...
- dmlittle 7y agoFWIW Moviepass never had a sustainable business model. They were loosing a lot of money from the get-go.
- duxup 7y agoArguably many VC funded companies don't have a sustainable model...
- turk73 7y agoThis is true of EVERY Internet-based company. All of them. Who doesn't wax nostalgic about the early days of eBay, Amazon, Craigslist?
- abdullahkhalids 7y agoCan you explain with an example what you mean by "detrimental to the open source project"?