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Elephant in the room: People looking for open-source solutions are not looking to spend money, it's usually the opposite. If you want to build a business around

Elephant in the room: People looking for open-source solutions are not looking to spend money, it's usually the opposite. If you want to build a business around open-source you should keep in mind, that your users are not your customers. What individual software developers want is different what enterprises want to pay for. Focus on the latter

simonw 3y ago
"People looking for open-source solutions are not looking to spend money, it's usually the opposite." I don't think that's true. In previous positions where I've had significant influence on budget spend I've still favored open source solutions because they make more sense from a risk point of view: should the vendor fail, the product has a solid chance of continuing to be useful.
- ushakov 3y ago
  It depends. I'd rather go with a venture-baked open-source solution rather than something made by one person in his free time
  - nazgulsenpai 3y ago
    I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here except some people/companies have different priorities -- and if that's the case then there's room for both VC backed startups and smaller open-source projects.
danenania 3y ago
It's the freemium model, which has always required a sufficient conversion rate from free to paid to work. That doesn't mean you should ignore what your free/OSS users want though. Today's hobbyist OSS user may be hired at a big company tomorrow and introduce everyone there to your product.
- ushakov 3y ago
  Last week, I talked to a VC, who's invested in a pretty popular open-source startup. They have huge issues converting oss users > paying businesses
  - danenania 3y ago
    Sure, it's a common problem with freemium. When freemium products fail, it's often for that reason. But there are also countless examples of freemium/open-core products succeeding.
  - ezekg 3y ago
    That sounds like a business/value problem not necessarily an open source problem. People won't pay for something if the free /OSS version meets all of their needs. That's why an "open-core" business model works so well. Open core also allows you specifically target businesses with specific features.
  - Rapzid 3y ago
    What other problem would they have? A close-source companies biggest issue is converting non-paying to paying customers yeah?
chambers 3y ago
I used to believe in the fancies of the communities I was apart of I thought they represented reality. Everyone talked up small iPhones, Linux on the Desktop, People paying/donating for FOSS, etc. But actually my community really just reflected a small sliver of reality. Even at that, more than a few folks were just talking about topics they wish were true, or they wish that they had done.

simonw 3y ago

"People looking for open-source solutions are not looking to spend money, it's usually the opposite." I don't think that's true. In previous positions where I've had significant influence on budget spend I've still favored open source solutions because they make more sense from a risk point of view: should the vendor fail, the product has a solid chance of continuing to be useful.

ushakov 3y ago
It depends. I'd rather go with a venture-baked open-source solution rather than something made by one person in his free time
- nazgulsenpai 3y ago
  I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here except some people/companies have different priorities -- and if that's the case then there's room for both VC backed startups and smaller open-source projects.

danenania 3y ago

It's the freemium model, which has always required a sufficient conversion rate from free to paid to work. That doesn't mean you should ignore what your free/OSS users want though. Today's hobbyist OSS user may be hired at a big company tomorrow and introduce everyone there to your product.

ushakov 3y ago
Last week, I talked to a VC, who's invested in a pretty popular open-source startup. They have huge issues converting oss users > paying businesses
- danenania 3y ago
  Sure, it's a common problem with freemium. When freemium products fail, it's often for that reason. But there are also countless examples of freemium/open-core products succeeding.
- ezekg 3y ago
  That sounds like a business/value problem not necessarily an open source problem. People won't pay for something if the free /OSS version meets all of their needs. That's why an "open-core" business model works so well. Open core also allows you specifically target businesses with specific features.
- Rapzid 3y ago
  What other problem would they have? A close-source companies biggest issue is converting non-paying to paying customers yeah?

chambers 3y ago

I used to believe in the fancies of the communities I was apart of I thought they represented reality. Everyone talked up small iPhones, Linux on the Desktop, People paying/donating for FOSS, etc. But actually my community really just reflected a small sliver of reality. Even at that, more than a few folks were just talking about topics they wish were true, or they wish that they had done.