Complexity

If you’re moving from a closed-source software product (whether something the runs on-prem or a SaaS offering) to an open source strategy, you will be increasing the complexity in your product offering and for your business.

If you started as an open source company, on the other hand, for you it’s the moment you introduce a commercial offering that you introduce complexity into the company.

Whichever route you take to being an open source company, as soon as you’ve got an open source project that you’re serious about plus something that customers pay you money for, you’ve got a much more complex setup than your peers with closed-source startups.

Managing the relationship between project + product is critical.

You need to know:

  • Who the target audience is your product and your product, including complete clarity on the difference between the two;

  • What outcome a user of the project expects versus the outcomes expected by customers… and again, what the difference between the two is;

  • The difference in pain points solved by the project versus the project;

  • The trigger for someone to download your project and become a user, versus the trigger for someone to become a paying customer;

  • The user journey versus the customer journey, and how the diverge and overlap;

  • The positioning/market category for your project and your commercial product, ie a core description of what each is, paying special attention to how they are different;

  • The differentiated value of your commercial product, and how it goes above and beyond the differentiated value of your project.

And it’s not just that you, as the founders, need to have this in your heads. Every person on your team should understand all of the above, and every person on your team should be able to explain all of the above points to a customer, a tech journalist, or their friend from college. Because you want the above to come through clearly in your web copy, your press releases, your sals conversations, your documentation, your product decisions and every other component of your company that’s public facing.

Managing complexity is one of the core challenges of building an open source company, but it’s one that can be done relatively easily and at scale if you put the right strategic framework in place — and doing this as soon as possible after, or actually ideally in preparation for, the moment you have both open source project and commercial offering co-existing will help you both feel more in control and actually be more in control. Which will translate to better conversion rates and quicker revenue growth.

Emily Omier