It is possible, but it takes some serious thinking. A couple approaches: 1) Support an open source project because it reduces the competition's advantages. E.

It is possible, but it takes some serious thinking. A couple approaches: 1) Support an open source project because it reduces the competition's advantages. E.g. IBM supporting Linux to reduce MS' advantages. If you're a startup looking to fight somebody big, you can use OSS as a tactic to level the playing field somewhat. 2) Break up your offering into proprietary and open parts. The former should align with your (hopefully unique) strengths, or maybe legally protected methods, the latter should be code that compliments it but is not strategically important. The open source aspect gets you attention, users and hopefully code contributions. The proprietary aspect you sell to customers who are happy to pay for e.g. convenience, speed, quality, user interface, attention to detail. An example is Apple supporting various non-core open source projects, like Webkit or FreeBSD, that they build on top of.