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Here are answers to your questions based on my own experience, followed by some questions for you. I have run two open source-based companies. 1. Does dual lic

Here are answers to your questions based on my own experience, followed by some questions for you. I have run two open source-based companies. 1. Does dual licensing work? YES. I used it in my previous company and it was very effective. We had GPL V2 licensed software that users could access and use. We had an enhanced version that was enterprise-licensed. We also confirmed that you can defend your rights legally. 2. Do companies pay? YES. The ones that have real money do. Those are the only kind you care about in business, because you aren't going to get money from the others anyway regardless of the license. It's far easier for them to pay a reasonable licensing fee and avoid future problems than to try to scam you. 3. Meta-question: when companies violate licenses, how often are they just bluffing? NOT RELEVANT. Your real problem is somebody trying to steal your business, not somebody using software in violation of the license. Think about models that make that hard to do. BTW you can go after them for copyleft license violations. Make sure you have the right license to prevent misbehavior. GPV V2 does not prevent someone from running a SaaS on your software. Can you offer your software as a SaaS service with value added features? This is the best way to make money in B2B software and gives you protection against copycats. The usual model is to let people try out the open source version and then run a SaaS version that removes all the pain of operations.

ghoward 5y ago
Thank you for the direct answers from your experience. That's really what I was looking for when I posted this. > Can you offer your software as a SaaS service with value added features? This is the best way to make money in B2B software and gives you protection against copycats. The usual model is to let people try out the open source version and then run a SaaS version that removes all the pain of operations. Well, it's a build system along the same lines as Nix and Bazel. I've thought about offering something like Nix-as-a-Service or Bazel-as-a-Service. But I don't know how attractive that would actually be for companies.
- hodgesrm 5y ago
  Perhaps it's more useful then to consider what the value adds would be on top of your product. One obvious addition to build systems is security-related features like source code scanning. People are rightly a bit paranoid about that right now. Based on the use patterns you can decide whether it's better to run as a SaaS or as installed software. BTW if you are looking for VC funding for an open source product, the first question they will have is what is your adoption? The pattern VCs are looking for is to find something widely used and monetize the audience. If you can get a lot of people using it and telling their friends you are golden. The other common option is to figure out a service model and bootstrap the business. Feel free to contact me directly if you want to talk. My email is in my profile. Either way, good luck!

ghoward 5y ago

Thank you for the direct answers from your experience. That's really what I was looking for when I posted this. > Can you offer your software as a SaaS service with value added features? This is the best way to make money in B2B software and gives you protection against copycats. The usual model is to let people try out the open source version and then run a SaaS version that removes all the pain of operations. Well, it's a build system along the same lines as Nix and Bazel. I've thought about offering something like Nix-as-a-Service or Bazel-as-a-Service. But I don't know how attractive that would actually be for companies.

hodgesrm 5y ago
Perhaps it's more useful then to consider what the value adds would be on top of your product. One obvious addition to build systems is security-related features like source code scanning. People are rightly a bit paranoid about that right now. Based on the use patterns you can decide whether it's better to run as a SaaS or as installed software. BTW if you are looking for VC funding for an open source product, the first question they will have is what is your adoption? The pattern VCs are looking for is to find something widely used and monetize the audience. If you can get a lot of people using it and telling their friends you are golden. The other common option is to figure out a service model and bootstrap the business. Feel free to contact me directly if you want to talk. My email is in my profile. Either way, good luck!