In my experience that has never worked. 1. First and most importantly, in a bootstrapped startup you simply don't have the money for a commercial license of an

In my experience that has never worked. 1. First and most importantly, in a bootstrapped startup you simply don't have the money for a commercial license of any kind. 2. The authors usually aren't ready to provide one, so negotiations take months and involve things like revenue estimations and the like. 3. The authors usually aren't ready to provide one, so drafting a contract takes ages. And then you get into legal questions such as do the authors actually have all the copyright assignments in place. 4. The authors usually aren't ready to provide one, and in an academic setting it isn't always obvious they can license the work commercially. Again, not insurmountable, but takes time. Considering all of the above, it just isn't worth the effort.