Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#1

Post by MarkinK » Thu, May 30, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

Hello HN! We’re currently open-sourcing our core code (backend and frontend) and pivoting to adding value with LLMs on top. With this, we need some advice.

I'm Kirill Markin, and my co-founder is Nikolay Amiantov. We've been working on our CRM/ERP product since 2017 and even have paying customers. But our growth is slow, and that's not exciting. We want to create something bigger for more people to use, and open-sourcing is something that both resonates with us and is a way to attract a community.

Our codebase is 38k LoC of F# (including a compiler for our own query language) and 35k LoC of TypeScript + Vue.js. While we prepare the code we have been reaching out to Zoho and ODOO integrators/developers (as they’re our closest competitors), from whom we got a lot of positive feedback.

Our biggest hurdle is figuring out the best way to take the next steps. Does anyone have any ideas on how to launch such a large codebase on GitHub to get maximum visibility? Suggestions on building a community around our open-source product, organizing further work, or any other pieces of advice are welcome.

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#2

Post by shicholas » Thu, May 30, 2024, 2:48 PM UTC

I just did a consult with Peggy at Scale.dev for this exact problem, highly recommend!

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#3

Post by abbradar » Thu, May 30, 2024, 2:55 PM UTC

shicholas wrote: post #2

I just did a consult with Peggy at Scale.dev for this exact problem, highly recommend!

Interesting, we did not consider consultancies for that. Not sure if we can handle the cost, but trying won't hurt.

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#4

Post by lol768 » Thu, May 30, 2024, 3:17 PM UTC

If you had a form where I could enter my email address, I'd be interested in at least being notified when it drops, so I could go about taking a look at it off the back of your HN description of what it does.

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#5

Post by EMIRELADERO » Thu, May 30, 2024, 3:21 PM UTC

You could begin by switching the existing repo(s?) to public. If secrets in the commits are a concern you can use stuff like GitGuardian (https://gitguardian.com)

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#6

Post by dangus » Thu, May 30, 2024, 3:22 PM UTC

> and pivoting to adding value with LLMs on top

lol, maybe you could go back in time and add some value with Blockchain or Big Data too!

Is your business profitable? Maybe a small sustainable business isn’t exciting to someone who is seeking a moonshot but it seems like you’re looking for recognition and business fame rather than actually solving customers’ problems.

In my opinion, open sourcing your product won’t magically make it more attractive to more people. It sounds like it already only fits a small niche and that’s probably fine.

If you want it to help more customers I would evaluate your product market fit as well as your marketing efforts first. Have you maxed out your addressable market or do you need more effective marketing, pricing, or something else? Is there enough business pain to justify the existence of your product?

Open source won’t really help you solve those things, it’s just a code license. In my opinion, customers of CRM/ERP products don’t really care about whether the code is open source, they care about whether the product solves their business pain, lowers costs/risks, increases productivity. E.g., if we open sourced AOL instant messenger that wouldn’t make it a more popular product than Discord.

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#7

Post by jppope » Thu, May 30, 2024, 3:24 PM UTC

have you considered selling the business?

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#8

Post by MarkinK » Thu, May 30, 2024, 3:27 PM UTC

dangus wrote: post #6

> and pivoting to adding value with LLMs on top lol, maybe you could go back in time and add some value with Blockchain or Big Data too! Is your business profitable? Maybe a small sustainable business isn’t exciting to someone who is seeking a moonshot but it seems like you’re looking for recognition and business fame rather than actually solving customers’ problems. In my opinion, open sourcing your product won’t ma…

I'm not interested in developing a product that's too slow to grow. And if it is, I guess there is no point in keeping the code closed. We are trying big moves and changes. Some of them will work. Will see. At least my integration partners really want my codebase open source :-)

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#9

Post by willsmith72 » Thu, May 30, 2024, 3:27 PM UTC

dangus wrote: post #6

> and pivoting to adding value with LLMs on top lol, maybe you could go back in time and add some value with Blockchain or Big Data too! Is your business profitable? Maybe a small sustainable business isn’t exciting to someone who is seeking a moonshot but it seems like you’re looking for recognition and business fame rather than actually solving customers’ problems. In my opinion, open sourcing your product won’t ma…

i completely agree, having seen founders over and over again delude themselves into belief that a marketing push will get their product to some escape velocity

Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?

#10

Post by MarkinK » Thu, May 30, 2024, 3:30 PM UTC

lol768 wrote: post #4

If you had a form where I could enter my email address, I'd be interested in at least being notified when it drops, so I could go about taking a look at it off the back of your HN description of what it does.

I will appear later on our GitHub account: https://github.com/ozma-io

It would be great if you could give us feedback, use it or even contribute.