Question about how to make a living from open source
Hi All, I am in need of assistance. I am currently working as a freelancer coding stuff in a company. However, although I am making good living, this does not scale much (and promotion is out of the question :) ). Anyway, I am looking for ways to scale. One of the ideas that were given to me is to compile couchbase or postgres and distribute the binaries with a support license. Find 4-5 customers which pay big bucks and make a living. Though, not much scale there either, unless i start taking employees... Another idea is taking employees but people in the business are telling me i am better off staying a freelancer than taking employees. Not sure what is true here. One other idea I had is hosting complex solutions for sites. Like postgresql couchbase etc... which is difficult for the average joe and making it scale like heroku etc... Can someone give me a clue? Thanks! Tzahi Fadida. ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Question about how to make a living from open source
On Thu, 18 Sep 2014, tzahi ml wrote:
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:15:40 +0300
From: tzahi ml tzahi...@gmail.com
To: linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il
Subject: Question about how to make a living from open source
Hi All,I am in need of assistance.
I am currently working as a freelancer coding stuff in a company.
However, although I am making good living, this does not scale much (and
promotion is out of the question :) ).
Anyway, I am looking for ways to scale.
Be ready to drink a lot of coffee, and say goodby to your significant
others (family).
One of the ideas that were given to me is to compile couchbase or postgres and
distribute the binaries with a support license. Find 4-5 customers which pay
big bucks
and make a living. Though, not much scale there either, unless i start taking
employees...
Customers that pay big bucks work with suppliers who have big bucks.
That's not you, so forget it. That is, large customers work with large
suppliers. For example, you you have a quality solution, but a larger
supplier has only a partial, poor quality solution, then the company with
big bucks will buy from the larger supplier with the poor quality, partial
solution and not you. That's how the business world works. Big business
works with big business, small business works with small business. The
size equation trumps quality and availability.
Another idea is taking employees but people in the business are telling me i am
better off staying a freelancer than taking employees. Not sure what is true
here.
When you take employees you need to have enough money to pay them for at
least two-months ahead. You will need to incorporate, and hire an office
manager/secretary. Your employees get paid first. If there is any money
left afterwards then you might get paid. Is this what you want to do?
That's how you want to risk your savings? Having employees is like having
children. You have to guide them, instruct them, motivate them and wipe
their noses. Are you built for that?
One other idea I had is hosting complex solutions for sites. Like postgresql
couchbase etc... which is difficult for the average joe and making it scale
like heroku
etc...
Can someone give me a clue?
Yes. Reverse the process. Instead of wanting to scale and then looking
for an idea, work on the idea first. If you have a great idea for a new
technology or service then look for partners. And if you don't have a
really great idea, forget about trying to scale.
That's not my 2 cents speaking. That's my NIS 600K debt speaking.
- yba
Thanks!
Tzahi Fadida.
--
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Re: Question about how to make a living from open source
On 09/18/2014 02:56 PM, Jonathan Ben Avraham wrote: On Thu, 18 Sep 2014, tzahi ml wrote: Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:15:40 +0300 From: tzahi ml tzahi...@gmail.com To: linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il Subject: Question about how to make a living from open source Hi All,I am in need of assistance. I am currently working as a freelancer coding stuff in a company. However, although I am making good living, this does not scale much (and promotion is out of the question :) ). Anyway, I am looking for ways to scale. A different way to say the same thing: You can choose to be an employee in which case your earning potential is limited to what the current market value of someone with your skill set is. Doesn't scale but does provide you with benefits, a guaranteed salary and a corporate culture for advancement. Or, you can choose to work for yourself. This have several variations: 1. Working as a contractor - Generally this allows you to charge a higher hourly rate. The down side is you have to provide your own benefits, accounting, etc. You also lose the stability of it being someone else's job to generate work for you. This also does not scale as you are limited to the number of hours a day you can work and the going market rate for the skill set you have. 2. Produce a product - Build a better mouse trap and sell it. This is not necessarily in line with the open source way of doing things. However, it is a common business plan. This has the potential to scale as you can develop the product once and sell it many times. You have the significant risk of startup and development costs and whether the product will be successful. 3. Provide a service - Along the lines of the idea you suggested of hosting complex solutions. This is similar to being a contractor but the focus is on marketing the service you provide rather you and your skill set. This only has the potential to scale by having other people (employees or contractors) provide the service in the name of your company. Your profit is the cost you can charge the client minus the cost of the worker actually doing the work. You also take on the responsibility of generating enough work to cover the costs of the worker(s) and yourself. With all of the joys that Yonatan described in his email. -- David Suna da...@davidsconsultants.com ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Question about how to make a living from open source
It appears not to sound that fun when you tell it like it is. I am just closing a startup, not too keen to start a new one right away. A startup has no business sense. However, I was hoping there is a middle ground, a business sense and a certain risk. The current idea I have is to freelance until I figure this out. Perhaps mix freelancing and a making a risky business. Is there some freelance/small company names with successful models in open source in Israel? It is hard to believe there is no middle ground, either freelance, be employed or start a startup. I have no trouble with slow progress but the aim is to scale eventually... On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 4:00 PM, David Suna da...@davidsconsultants.com wrote: On 09/18/2014 02:56 PM, Jonathan Ben Avraham wrote: On Thu, 18 Sep 2014, tzahi ml wrote: Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:15:40 +0300 From: tzahi ml tzahi...@gmail.com To: linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il Subject: Question about how to make a living from open source Hi All,I am in need of assistance. I am currently working as a freelancer coding stuff in a company. However, although I am making good living, this does not scale much (and promotion is out of the question :) ). Anyway, I am looking for ways to scale. A different way to say the same thing: You can choose to be an employee in which case your earning potential is limited to what the current market value of someone with your skill set is. Doesn't scale but does provide you with benefits, a guaranteed salary and a corporate culture for advancement. Or, you can choose to work for yourself. This have several variations: 1. Working as a contractor - Generally this allows you to charge a higher hourly rate. The down side is you have to provide your own benefits, accounting, etc. You also lose the stability of it being someone else's job to generate work for you. This also does not scale as you are limited to the number of hours a day you can work and the going market rate for the skill set you have. 2. Produce a product - Build a better mouse trap and sell it. This is not necessarily in line with the open source way of doing things. However, it is a common business plan. This has the potential to scale as you can develop the product once and sell it many times. You have the significant risk of startup and development costs and whether the product will be successful. 3. Provide a service - Along the lines of the idea you suggested of hosting complex solutions. This is similar to being a contractor but the focus is on marketing the service you provide rather you and your skill set. This only has the potential to scale by having other people (employees or contractors) provide the service in the name of your company. Your profit is the cost you can charge the client minus the cost of the worker actually doing the work. You also take on the responsibility of generating enough work to cover the costs of the worker(s) and yourself. With all of the joys that Yonatan described in his email. -- David Suna da...@davidsconsultants.com ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Question about how to make a living from open source
It's not clear (at least, not to me) what you're asking. You want something that has no risk, does not require too much hard work, but pays well. And then you want to further restrict the search space of this invisible universe to open source only. How is that middle ground? Decide which of these constraints you're willing to free, and perhaps people can help you with some experience. If there was an open source way to make money easily with no risk and little work I promise you we wouldn't be telling you about it since we would be too busy drinking cocktails in our in our own private island in the Caribbeans. On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 10:27 PM, tzahi ml tzahi...@gmail.com wrote: It appears not to sound that fun when you tell it like it is. I am just closing a startup, not too keen to start a new one right away. A startup has no business sense. However, I was hoping there is a middle ground, a business sense and a certain risk. The current idea I have is to freelance until I figure this out. Perhaps mix freelancing and a making a risky business. Is there some freelance/small company names with successful models in open source in Israel? It is hard to believe there is no middle ground, either freelance, be employed or start a startup. I have no trouble with slow progress but the aim is to scale eventually... On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 4:00 PM, David Suna da...@davidsconsultants.com wrote: On 09/18/2014 02:56 PM, Jonathan Ben Avraham wrote: On Thu, 18 Sep 2014, tzahi ml wrote: Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:15:40 +0300 From: tzahi ml tzahi...@gmail.com To: linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il Subject: Question about how to make a living from open source Hi All,I am in need of assistance. I am currently working as a freelancer coding stuff in a company. However, although I am making good living, this does not scale much (and promotion is out of the question :) ). Anyway, I am looking for ways to scale. A different way to say the same thing: You can choose to be an employee in which case your earning potential is limited to what the current market value of someone with your skill set is. Doesn't scale but does provide you with benefits, a guaranteed salary and a corporate culture for advancement. Or, you can choose to work for yourself. This have several variations: 1. Working as a contractor - Generally this allows you to charge a higher hourly rate. The down side is you have to provide your own benefits, accounting, etc. You also lose the stability of it being someone else's job to generate work for you. This also does not scale as you are limited to the number of hours a day you can work and the going market rate for the skill set you have. 2. Produce a product - Build a better mouse trap and sell it. This is not necessarily in line with the open source way of doing things. However, it is a common business plan. This has the potential to scale as you can develop the product once and sell it many times. You have the significant risk of startup and development costs and whether the product will be successful. 3. Provide a service - Along the lines of the idea you suggested of hosting complex solutions. This is similar to being a contractor but the focus is on marketing the service you provide rather you and your skill set. This only has the potential to scale by having other people (employees or contractors) provide the service in the name of your company. Your profit is the cost you can charge the client minus the cost of the worker actually doing the work. You also take on the responsibility of generating enough work to cover the costs of the worker(s) and yourself. With all of the joys that Yonatan described in his email. -- David Suna da...@davidsconsultants.com ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Question about how to make a living from open source
Hi Aviram, As it is an email, it is difficult to convey details and it can be confusing. I am not restricting anything, but since this is a linux/open source mailing list I asked it with this subject. I worked on proprietary code for the last 8 years so I have no problem with proprietary or open source. I do think there are merits to start with an open source project since it is a good starting point (otherwise you start from scratch). Also, I am not saying I am restricted to writing open source code. I would like to create a product (as i wrote earlier i just closed my 2nd or 3rd startup depends how you look at it) eventually but I am trying to be realistic. Start again more slowly. Starting again from scratch: I am currently a freelancer by choice. This is my first time I have worked this way. I am actually being payed well but I do want something which scales and sustainable in the future and that will be turned into a company (somehow), preferably self funded by effort instead of investments. I am not looking to make big bucks but to have more control of the direction it takes. I worked for huge companies which wasted my time by writing the same thing over and over for stupid reasons. I got payed well but I feel I can do more. I am looking for an advise to jumpstart. A place to start. Naturally, my first thought was ask in this mailing list since there are people with open source and business experience here. Perhaps there is a sustainable specific format with other companies examples etc... Everyone says, don't take employees, don't start a startup, don't be independent, don't do that, don't do this. But what can I do?... :) I guess this is too general and I should be more specific but this is my current state so I am telling it as it is. I can write about my attempts but I don't have any definite direction at this time so I am not sure they are relevant. On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 4:34 PM, Aviram Jenik avi...@jenik.com wrote: It's not clear (at least, not to me) what you're asking. You want something that has no risk, does not require too much hard work, but pays well. And then you want to further restrict the search space of this invisible universe to open source only. How is that middle ground? Decide which of these constraints you're willing to free, and perhaps people can help you with some experience. If there was an open source way to make money easily with no risk and little work I promise you we wouldn't be telling you about it since we would be too busy drinking cocktails in our in our own private island in the Caribbeans. On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 10:27 PM, tzahi ml tzahi...@gmail.com wrote: It appears not to sound that fun when you tell it like it is. I am just closing a startup, not too keen to start a new one right away. A startup has no business sense. However, I was hoping there is a middle ground, a business sense and a certain risk. The current idea I have is to freelance until I figure this out. Perhaps mix freelancing and a making a risky business. Is there some freelance/small company names with successful models in open source in Israel? It is hard to believe there is no middle ground, either freelance, be employed or start a startup. I have no trouble with slow progress but the aim is to scale eventually... On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 4:00 PM, David Suna da...@davidsconsultants.com wrote: On 09/18/2014 02:56 PM, Jonathan Ben Avraham wrote: On Thu, 18 Sep 2014, tzahi ml wrote: Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:15:40 +0300 From: tzahi ml tzahi...@gmail.com To: linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il Subject: Question about how to make a living from open source Hi All,I am in need of assistance. I am currently working as a freelancer coding stuff in a company. However, although I am making good living, this does not scale much (and promotion is out of the question :) ). Anyway, I am looking for ways to scale. A different way to say the same thing: You can choose to be an employee in which case your earning potential is limited to what the current market value of someone with your skill set is. Doesn't scale but does provide you with benefits, a guaranteed salary and a corporate culture for advancement. Or, you can choose to work for yourself. This have several variations: 1. Working as a contractor - Generally this allows you to charge a higher hourly rate. The down side is you have to provide your own benefits, accounting, etc. You also lose the stability of it being someone else's job to generate work for you. This also does not scale as you are limited to the number of hours a day you can work and the going market rate for the skill set you have. 2. Produce a product - Build a better mouse trap and sell it. This is not necessarily in line with the open source way of doing things. However, it is a common business plan. This has the potential to scale as you can develop the product once and sell it many times.
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