Call for the early backers.

Hiii again 👋

So, you may have come across my blogs, but incase I didn't give you a proper introduction about me, here's a brief.

I am Paul, and since I was in college, I have always loved supporting and building open-source tools and libraries, writing tutorials, blogs etc. This is one of the things I have always been passionate about. I loved to build in open, so people can learn, give feedback and contribute.

Just after college, I started working in a startup as Full-stack developer, and, was working on stuff related to Three.js library and AI. The pay was fine, the work was good, sometimes loved it because there was good amount of research required.

But working there, it was hard to find time to build and maintain my open-source works. So, after some thinking, I decided to leave my job to go full-time on open-source.

So... now what!

Well, I was burned out working there, it was a startup, so sometimes had to stay back till 2 AM, to finish the work within the deadlines. Decided it was time to take a break, so took a month-long break, before touching code again.

After the break I didn't go pick up a project or touch code yet, I wanted to restart slowly, so instead I went back to answering some Stackoverflow questions similar to the problems faced at previous workplace. This way I didn't feel like I was taking on a lot of work, also at the same time serving the community.

After a while, decided to update the existing libraries I had developed.

Now where...

I started looking for common problems I could solve for developers, hung out around developer communities, reddit etc, started writing tutorials, blogs, built small tools for developers.

The sustainability problem

Now, I have, during my undergrad program, created python libraries which in combined are used by over 70,000 devs world-wide. Which are still maintained.

Whoa! So, you should have made some money right???

Well, I had set up a Buymeacoffee and in the past from some generous one-time donors, I had made couple of bucks ~ $40 (may not seem like much, but always better than nothing).

Now, lack of proper funding, is a problem a common problem faced by open-source contributors at some point.

Now that I quit the job, who's paying my bills?

well, in the beginning I lived off my savings. Later on, started cutting out on expenses.

When, I restarted working on open-source again, I managed to sustain by doing small side-gigs and contract works and wanted to continue funding open-source providing side gigs.

Lucky, but not for long

So recently, I started developing another open-source "framework agnostic GUI tool" for python developers, a much-needed tool for a lot of python devs. Something that would save a lot of time prototyping.

I started working on the project at the end of July.

Luckily, In the past, I have always managed to find small contract works whenever I went short of funds. Now that, I knew, I'll always find work, I started to get a bit cocky, and would wait till I am truly short of funds, before finding a part-time gig/work.

Previous month was among those months, I was down on cash, so I had to stop my work and progress made on the python GUI tool and went to find some small work.

Luckily, even this time, as usual, I found a work, a startup wanted me to build a landing page for their product. Money, which was enough to fund the upcoming open-source GUI tool! or so I thought.

So, after a week of work, approval and the usual process, I happily sent an invoice, and, restarted the work on the python tool again, also on the side built Font Tester tool.

Bummer! the client didn't pay up.

But wait...! there's another window of opportunity secure funding. Participate in aaaa hackaaathoooon. Luckily again here, I saw an OSS starterkit challenge, which was perfectly aligned with my past open-source startkit.

So, decided to put out an existing work, with some thoughts and prayers 🙏.

Annnndddd...., spoiler alert... 🔔, bummer again

The bet...

Well, since this is an open-source project being made for the community, and to make it by the community, I decided to launch a crowdfunding Kickstarter to fund the upcoming open-source python GUI tool and 3 other open-source work.

But what's the need for the project?

• Lot of python developers don't want to deal with GUIs
• Most GUI builders are framework specific.
• Most of the existing ones are incomplete or don't support events.

While there are many other sub-problems, these are the main problems, I am trying to solve for everyone by creating a framework agnostic GUI builder for python.

So, My goal is to raise $3500, yes not 35,000 or million dollars in VC funding.

Yes, That's enough for me to build the upcoming "framework agnostic GUI builder for python", a Django library, and 2 other open-source extensions, without having to juggle between finding work and building open-source.

All of these open-source are planned to be released by the end of November.

But... why me?

Well, You can count on my past contributions and works.

Here's some top 10 reason's

1. I have built open-source libraries used by 70,000+ devs
2. Have helped other devs, by answering Stackoverflow questions and have over 3k+ rep 4 gold badges by helping moderate the site and more.
3. Have built helpful tools such as FontTester and HoverPreview(Vscode extension to preview on hover)
4. Have written a research paper during my undergrad program.
5. Have built apps, which had couple of paying users during undergrad program. (didn't continue, because I lost interest)
6. Have helped other devs by building boilerplates 1, 2, 3
7. Have written tutorials to help other devs, such as AWS depolyment, stripe django, Transactional emails Django and more.
8. Have worked on complex projects invloving Three.js, (it was paaaiiinn, a lot of math and research during my previous workplace.)
9. Young, energetic, skilled googler and have enough research skills to make it work.
10. Have the idea, working on the prototype.

There's more but, I don't want to spend more time talking about all that...

Hmmm.... interesting, but what's in it for me as an early backer?

Well, first the tool and libraries I am going to make will make your life simpler, you get to learn and contribute.

And as an early backer/investor 😎 in the project, your name/ your company logo/name will be added into the early sponsors list and on the readme.md page of all 3-4 upcoming open-source projects.

Hmmm...not satisfied? Well, additionally, you'll be given early access, prioritise your feature request/issues, any premium feature(if added) will remain free for early sponsors. Plus, you'll also get access to FontTester premium features for free.

And, whenever I get time, I'll write blogs and give you insights on how I build the upcoming project, how to start your own open-source, how I built my first open-source library, how to start contributing to Stackoverflow and more

Soo, how much is the share price for early backers???

All it takes for you to start backing is $5, So, lets fund the project together as a community to make it accessible to everyone and support open-source:)

Link to support.
(When sponsoring, add your github username under the nickname, this way it'll be easier for me to mention you when the project is opened)

If you want to make a bigger donation > $500, contact me here

How will I be notified of the development work?
Well, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my substack newsletter, I launched for updates.

Hmm... Paul, I want to support, but I'd like to support in other ways

Well you can order a custom work

Or
I have 2 Premium domains, which I am willing to sell at a fair price to fund this open-source

1. browsedocs.com (a useful domain if you plan on building SaaS related to documentation/ enterprise documentation)
2. cupidcues.com (For people who are interested in making a dating apps, I also have code for this, if you need)

If interested in sponsoring this way you can contact me here.

Soo... what happens if you run out of money again??

Well after completing the 3-4 tools and libraries I have stated, I plan to get a part time job running a community/community manager, since I have experience editing and moderating questions and answers on Stackoverflow and continue providing side gigs.

I want to support, but no money :)

well, it's understandable :) you can also support by liking and sharing this article with others. Plus, if you want to follow along the development, you can subscribe to the free newsletter, where I'll be writing more about open-source.

Link to support.