What advice do you offer founders regarding building open-source commercial software businesses?
Replied byPaul Copplestone
Co-Founder & CEO at Supabase
Niche: SaaS
Revenue: Approx. USD 4 Million/month
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Started: 2020
Do not treat open source as a cynical top-of-funnel marketing trick. You must genuinely love your community, contribute upstream, and make the self-hosted experience truly functional. If you cripple your open-source core to force users into proprietary enterprise licenses, the community will fork your repository. Commercial success comes from hosting convenience, enterprise security, and Planetary infrastructure management.
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