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This is not as simple as it sounds. Just yesterday I had a call with the Delft university of technology in Netherland, they want me to add some features on the

This is not as simple as it sounds. Just yesterday I had a call with the Delft university of technology in Netherland, they want me to add some features on the free version of my FOSS product [1] but they did not want to pay anything. Over the last month, I was in contact with a 800B publicly traded company for a 1.8k per year invoice, once we agreed on the general direction they kept adding expectations, first was to sign tons of paperwork with their security checklist, legal stuff which took a few days but when they start asking for things that would take potentially weeks more, I invite them to do extras on a contracting basis, since them I have never heard back and of course they never paid a dime. I have literally tons of stories like this from governments to F500. In my bubble the paid support plan mostly work with US entities. [1]: https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash

MrDarcy 11mo ago
Universities are a special case. They generally don’t spend money because of the red tape. In much of corporate America expenses under $100 give or take don’t even require documentation, so a $50/month support subscription is easily purchased. Just need to find the person with the purchase card.
- mickael-kerjean 11mo ago
  In my experience, having MIT and UCI as customers, US universities are much easier to deal with small to no process for simple cheap things. On the other hand, I was contacted by a well known engineering school in France (ENSEEIHT), they wanted support but were laughing at the idea to spend 20$ per month for the privilege, left the impression they wanted to use my time for way under minimum wage, same yesterday with a deutch school who wanted help but not willing to spend a dime, and some other universities who have deployed my software in prod but did not upgrade in the last 5 years. Even in China, I stumbled upon a fork maintained by the university of Shangai, of course they never reached out in the first place to ask for any kind of support, just took the code and went their own way. This kind of behavior haven't happen with US universities which are more likely to reach out and pay for support
  - OccamsMirror 11mo ago
    "Pull requests welcome"
  - watwut 11mo ago
    > I stumbled upon a fork maintained by the university of Shangai, of course they never reached out in the first place to ask for any kind of support, just took the code and went their own way. I think this one is 100% ok for open source, no?
    - mickael-kerjean 11mo ago
      this is fine indeed if you didn't ask for my time
- krzyk 11mo ago
  It is very hard to find a person with that purchase card. As a developer in corporate environment I won't get anywhere close to be able to influence anyone to buy a support, or a subscription for an open source or closed source product. This is my third corp, and it was true in all of them. The most what I got is the approval to do some PRs for such projects during company time.
winrid 11mo ago
It's actually pretty simple. For the former case, you do nothing. Tell the university to find someone to make the improvement, or do it for fun. In the latter case, you should be charging 5-10x that, for starters... You send a Statement of Work, and only do what's in that, and only after they pay.
bruce511 11mo ago
I agree, it's not as simple as "$500 per year". In some cases it can be, but mostly it's not. Firstly, you need to clearly define what is included, and even more so, what is not included. How many hours is $500? Who decides what us should bug? Can they get new features because they have support? How many installs does the support cover? And do on. And if they start with things like "supplier agreements" etc, just walk away. Yes, some companies have a threshold where managers can just "spend money". Some managers may even use that to support you. But taking any money changes the relationship you have with the user. Right now, it's completely inside your control. Direction, Priorities, Scope, Pace, levels of effort etc. I'm a huge fan of getting paid, I write software for money, but make no mistake - taking money changes things.
rahimnathwani 11mo ago
fwiw the pricing page is buggy on mobile: - the second 'start' button overlaps the list items - tapping that button darkens the whole page but doesn't display anything new - even before I get to that stage, it's not clear what you're selling at each price point
OccamsMirror 11mo ago
You're too cheap. Anyone that won't pay for a proper enterprise support contract you should tell to pound sand. You'll be surprised that when you start charging more people will actually take you more seriously and will be more inclined to sign up. It's counter intuitive from your side, but perception is reality. A 20k/yr enterprise support agreement is more believable to provide results than a 2k/yr deal.
- soloridindan 11mo ago
  Quite. I remember one of my first corporate customers who was very suspicious of $2K/week, because nobody could do that for that cheap they said. It was nothing extraordinary, just some integration work, tests etc for the project, they wanted it to work with their other suppliers' systems
mperham 11mo ago
Really: add a zero to your price. These companies burn millions on procurement bureaucracy. Make them pay for your misery.
- inemesitaffia 11mo ago
  Two zeros actually

MrDarcy 11mo ago

Universities are a special case. They generally don’t spend money because of the red tape. In much of corporate America expenses under $100 give or take don’t even require documentation, so a $50/month support subscription is easily purchased. Just need to find the person with the purchase card.

mickael-kerjean 11mo ago
In my experience, having MIT and UCI as customers, US universities are much easier to deal with small to no process for simple cheap things. On the other hand, I was contacted by a well known engineering school in France (ENSEEIHT), they wanted support but were laughing at the idea to spend 20$ per month for the privilege, left the impression they wanted to use my time for way under minimum wage, same yesterday with a deutch school who wanted help but not willing to spend a dime, and some other universities who have deployed my software in prod but did not upgrade in the last 5 years. Even in China, I stumbled upon a fork maintained by the university of Shangai, of course they never reached out in the first place to ask for any kind of support, just took the code and went their own way. This kind of behavior haven't happen with US universities which are more likely to reach out and pay for support
- OccamsMirror 11mo ago
  "Pull requests welcome"
- watwut 11mo ago
  > I stumbled upon a fork maintained by the university of Shangai, of course they never reached out in the first place to ask for any kind of support, just took the code and went their own way. I think this one is 100% ok for open source, no?
  - mickael-kerjean 11mo ago
    this is fine indeed if you didn't ask for my time
krzyk 11mo ago
It is very hard to find a person with that purchase card. As a developer in corporate environment I won't get anywhere close to be able to influence anyone to buy a support, or a subscription for an open source or closed source product. This is my third corp, and it was true in all of them. The most what I got is the approval to do some PRs for such projects during company time.

winrid 11mo ago

It's actually pretty simple. For the former case, you do nothing. Tell the university to find someone to make the improvement, or do it for fun. In the latter case, you should be charging 5-10x that, for starters... You send a Statement of Work, and only do what's in that, and only after they pay.

bruce511 11mo ago

I agree, it's not as simple as "$500 per year". In some cases it can be, but mostly it's not. Firstly, you need to clearly define what is included, and even more so, what is not included. How many hours is $500? Who decides what us should bug? Can they get new features because they have support? How many installs does the support cover? And do on. And if they start with things like "supplier agreements" etc, just walk away. Yes, some companies have a threshold where managers can just "spend money". Some managers may even use that to support you. But taking any money changes the relationship you have with the user. Right now, it's completely inside your control. Direction, Priorities, Scope, Pace, levels of effort etc. I'm a huge fan of getting paid, I write software for money, but make no mistake - taking money changes things.

rahimnathwani 11mo ago

fwiw the pricing page is buggy on mobile: - the second 'start' button overlaps the list items - tapping that button darkens the whole page but doesn't display anything new - even before I get to that stage, it's not clear what you're selling at each price point

OccamsMirror 11mo ago

You're too cheap. Anyone that won't pay for a proper enterprise support contract you should tell to pound sand. You'll be surprised that when you start charging more people will actually take you more seriously and will be more inclined to sign up. It's counter intuitive from your side, but perception is reality. A 20k/yr enterprise support agreement is more believable to provide results than a 2k/yr deal.

soloridindan 11mo ago
Quite. I remember one of my first corporate customers who was very suspicious of $2K/week, because nobody could do that for that cheap they said. It was nothing extraordinary, just some integration work, tests etc for the project, they wanted it to work with their other suppliers' systems

mperham 11mo ago

Really: add a zero to your price. These companies burn millions on procurement bureaucracy. Make them pay for your misery.

inemesitaffia 11mo ago
Two zeros actually