The Open Source Monetization Bottom Line
Last week I spoke at All Things Open about how to determine if a project is a good fit for monetization. I talked about a lot of stuff (and here are the slides, if you want them). But I wanted to call out the bottom line when it comes to building a business around an open source project. There are only two criteria to meet:
Does your open source project provide real value? —> if people can’t use the project and get real value out of it, you’re building a proprietary software company with some open source components, not an open source company.
Can you provide additional value above and beyond what the open source project provides, that people are willing to pay for? —> This is the critical question. If your OSS is so awesome that no one needs anything else… you’ll have a tough time monetizing even though your technology is amazing and potentially used by the whole world.
That’s it. If you’re thinking about building an open source company, it’s worth taking a minute to consider both points and ensure the company you want to build meets both.