How can we build an open source business that:
- actually makes money
- gives back to the community
Don’t stress with your license, STICK WITH IT
Instead stress about Marketing, Sales, Finances
Model #1: Services for open source projects
100% Open Source Software
example: Percona
Education
Teach people how to use your software, courses, classes etc.
Feature Development
Add features to your software
Consulting
Help businesses set up your project in their pipeline
Enterprise Support
This can have 80% Gross Margin!!
This is basically insurance for a company
Model #2: Open Core
Open Source Software Core + Proprietary Extensions
This can have 80% Gross Margin!!
You provide a community version and a pro version
example: dbeaver
Extension that can be useful for companies like:
Authentication
Authorization
Clustering
HA/DR
Analytics
Performance Monitoring
Proprietary Libraries
Integration with Proprietary Software
Model #3: Cloud services for open source
100% Open Source Software + Proprietary Cloud Management
People can self host, you offer a ready cloud service
50%-80% Gross Margin It’s very sticky, you are likely to keep customers
example: Altinity
You could add:
Automation
Upgrade
Performance Management
Monitoring
Security
Support