"At first I tried to make my argument the way that Stallman made his: on the merits. I would explain how freedom to share would lead to greater innovation at lower cost, greater economies of scale through more open standards, etc., and people would universally respond "It's a great idea, but it will never work, because nobody is going to pay money for free software." After two years of polishing my rhetoric, refining my arguments, and delivering my messages to people who paid for me to fly all over the world, I never got farther than "It's a great idea, but . . .," when I had my second insight: if everybody thinks it's a great idea, it probably is, and if nobody thinks it will work, I'll have no competition!"
My favourite free advice (worth what you paid for it): similar to what the original article stated, the "innovation path" is for the gold prospectors going out to make it rich. Trying to make a differentiator and then get paid multiples on your good idea won't work for free software because everybody gets to use your good idea.
Free software business models require you to execute at a level higher than anyone else can execute. Usually if you are the person who built that infrastructure, you have an edge, but it really is all about building a viable business, not building crazy software.
In that way, I think free software businesses are inherently less risky. Often you don't need VC, because if you can't get people to pay for your services, you are SOL anyway.
From your short message, you seem to understand this. I wish you good luck!
An interesting aspect of the discussion here is that the opinion is that there seems to be only a few options for funding an open source organisation: venture funded or organic growth. Venture funded is challenging, as it is all about gold digging. Organic growth is generally a slow and hard path.
If you have other goals than just money, there is actually quite a lot of opportunity to work on open source software, with viable business models and interesting things to work on.
My favourite quote from that link:
"At first I tried to make my argument the way that Stallman made his: on the merits. I would explain how freedom to share would lead to greater innovation at lower cost, greater economies of scale through more open standards, etc., and people would universally respond "It's a great idea, but it will never work, because nobody is going to pay money for free software." After two years of polishing my rhetoric, refining my arguments, and delivering my messages to people who paid for me to fly all over the world, I never got farther than "It's a great idea, but . . .," when I had my second insight: if everybody thinks it's a great idea, it probably is, and if nobody thinks it will work, I'll have no competition!"
My favourite free advice (worth what you paid for it): similar to what the original article stated, the "innovation path" is for the gold prospectors going out to make it rich. Trying to make a differentiator and then get paid multiples on your good idea won't work for free software because everybody gets to use your good idea.
Free software business models require you to execute at a level higher than anyone else can execute. Usually if you are the person who built that infrastructure, you have an edge, but it really is all about building a viable business, not building crazy software.
In that way, I think free software businesses are inherently less risky. Often you don't need VC, because if you can't get people to pay for your services, you are SOL anyway.
From your short message, you seem to understand this. I wish you good luck!