Ask HN: Say I want to leverage OSS for business, what's the best way to proceed?

1 points by the_generalist 3 years ago | 2 comments

I'm technical enough to understand the most important software concepts but I don't code.

Let's say there's a piece of OSS that I think meshes well with a business idea I'm working on. What are the best practices here?

I'm going the indie hacker route, so very limited resources at the beginning.

KarlKemp 3 years ago |

Let's start by leveraging the word "leveraging" into the sea. Also "meshes well". Because those terms are generic bordering on useless.

Do you want to use OSS software? Great, go ahead! The license isn't going to get in your way, it's essentially free-as-in-beer for you.

Do you want to make changes to the software and redistribute it? You may need to do so under the original license (for GPL and similar).

brudgers 3 years ago |

so very limited resources at the beginning.

This is called "under-capitalization" and is a fundamental business problem.

The best practice is adequate capitalization.

Adequate capitalization lets you focus on customers, revenue, and cashflow...aka "the things that matter" instead of chasing your tail with free software.

Or to put it another way, the best practice is obtaining money because obtaining money is what businesses do.

Good luck.