3 ways to build an open-source startup

#News(Startup) [ via IoTGroup ]

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For all of the complexity in the world of open source, there are just three viable models for building a successful startup on top of an open-source project.
It’s been a crazy time in open source.
Founders might be wondering whether there’s still space for new open-source software companies among all of these heavy hitters.
As an investor, I have a front-line perspective on the many successful attempts to turn open-source projects into successful software startups.
Startups actually have an advantage these days because they can learn from what’s worked and what hasn’t when it comes to commercializing open-source software.
Looking at the successes, I’ve identified three proven paths from project to commercial success.
1. Institutional This model represents cases where a big institution (company or university) develops an open-source project, gives it to an established foundation, and the founders leave the first institution to start a company around it.
The founders launch a startup after the open-source project is validated while still keeping the founder halo and/or the governing institution halo.
This model represents cases in which founders create an open-source project on their own or with venture backing.
Most of the examples in the table below have changed open-source licensing in the last year or so, something that can’t be done for foundation-donated code.
All of these projects have named their company the same as the project, which isn’t true of the Institutional examples above.
*In many cases the first releases of the projects in the table above came before a company formed, but the company is the closest thing to the founding institution.
This model represents the many cases of companies co-opting an existing open-source project.
Even if you haven’t created an open-source project, you can create a company around one

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