Hi Mac! I'd say the biggest misconception is that "there is no open source business model". While OSS itself is certainly not a business model, I believe there are several business models that COSS companies implement - that work well, some better than others in many situations. Empirically, over the past 15 years, "open core" has proven to work the best, but it is not a binary thing like most frame it. It is a spectrum/gradient. More here: medium.com/open-consensus/2-open-c...
When we were investigating the pros and cons of going fully open source and leaning into the business, I definitely found a general sense of closed-mindedness towards the types of business models available for companies built around open source.
Since we're consumer-facing and fairly atypical in that sense, it was even less talked about. But learning up on the common thought patterns like open core, etc. really gave a good jumping off point for thinking about the whole thing.
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Thanks for doing this! What are some common misconceptions about COSS?
Hi Mac! I'd say the biggest misconception is that "there is no open source business model". While OSS itself is certainly not a business model, I believe there are several business models that COSS companies implement - that work well, some better than others in many situations. Empirically, over the past 15 years, "open core" has proven to work the best, but it is not a binary thing like most frame it. It is a spectrum/gradient. More here: medium.com/open-consensus/2-open-c...
Ah I see. Thank you for your response!!
When we were investigating the pros and cons of going fully open source and leaning into the business, I definitely found a general sense of closed-mindedness towards the types of business models available for companies built around open source.
Since we're consumer-facing and fairly atypical in that sense, it was even less talked about. But learning up on the common thought patterns like open core, etc. really gave a good jumping off point for thinking about the whole thing.