To be honest my open source stuff has largely been out of the usual reason of being annoyed something didn't already exist, sometimes adding features, sometimes

To be honest my open source stuff has largely been out of the usual reason of being annoyed something didn't already exist, sometimes adding features, sometimes building something from the ground up. The thing is, working on stuff that was useful for myself and for the clients we already had naturally meant it would be useful to similar companies so the whole process sort of self-selected for working without there being much intentionality involved. The nice part of it though is that it helps with work you already have available, so to a great extent it then helping find work later can be regarded as a helpful side effect. It's also notable that I've done a lot of helping people out on IRC, mailing lists, etc. which naturally (a) means you get excellent help when you're the one who's stuck (b) builds up people who recognise you and may recommend you later. Quite a number of customers over the years have been conversions from support channels because people have thought to themselves "if the free support for these projects is this good, I bet paying for dedicated attention will be even better for me" and Shadowcat has done our best to prove them right to have thought that ;)