For anyone else wondering what the product is, it appears it is this: https://ozma.io/
Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
21–30 of 81 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#22ozmo.io feels odd. Considering the examples in the screenshots, it seems aimed at some foreign market, but all text is in English and it reads slightly "off". I think most of website design/copy is about creating the appearance of being legitimate, but that is difficult without being culturally native. Why not try marketing to actual customers in their own language(s)? I don't think there any downsides to open-sourci…
That's a good idea, thanks!
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#23For anyone else wondering what the product is, it appears it is this: https://ozma.io/
yep
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I understand. But we've created a value that's too slow to grow. It doesn't make sense.
Going back to the original question of the thread, it’s starting to sound more like a grieving process than an answerable question. How do you open source the code? You flip it from private to public. That’s pretty much it. Well, okay, maybe an over-simplification. If the business is small and profitable but it’s not growing how you’d like then I’d probably be more interested in selling it if it was me. I am not sure…
> it's starting to sound more like a grieving process
Why? No grieving. Many products in the world are not growing as fast as their creators would like – it is OK. We just try new things and see what happens. Like what if you put all the code on the net :-)
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
My gut feeling first impression is that your integration partners probably want your code open source so that you give away all the value that you’ve worked to create. They are looking at their best interests, not yours. I’m thinking that you’re not looking at how to change the product to solve more customer pain and therefore grow, you’re just interested in dumping your work into open source, hoping it brings more a…
Yes, I understand. But we've created a value that's too slow to grow. It doesn't make sense.
if I were you I'd seek to sell it instead of open-source it. "pivoting to adding value with LLMs on top" is very expensive from a COGS standpoint; and will complicate your business economics, not simplify them.
You don't seem to have a problem where open-source is the answer; the problem you seem to have is you built a business and a business model you weren't intending to build; and you don't solve that by open-sourcing. You can solve that a myriad of ways, but none of them are readily solved by open-sourcing your product.
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#26I would definitely focus more than anything on figuring out what kind of license you want to do. For example AGPL is probably the most sensible if you want to force anyone making back-end changes to share them back, but it also puts off people like me, who avoid that license like the plague, but when something is AGPL and I only care about using it as-is, that's perfectly fine. The caveat there being you could dual-l…
> I would consider what kind of licensing you want to do, I would also consider goals in doing this. One huge benefit of an open source SaaS offering is the freedom to take control of what you're getting out of it in-house, or going straight to the vendor.
We plan to put both back and front under Apache-2.0. It seems like a good enough way to show that the user won't depend on us.
> Will you be offering migration to and from your SaaS service?
Yes, we plan to continue offering the cloud for those who don't want to deploy their own solution.
> As for building a community, definitely make a Discord and a forum where people can come together and get help publicly, figure out how to get a stackoverflow space for it as well.
We're thinking about Discord right now, even started one. That is an interesting idea about Stackoverflow, thank you we'll think about it!
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I understand. But we've created a value that's too slow to grow. It doesn't make sense.
if I were you I'd seek to sell it instead of open-source it. "pivoting to adding value with LLMs on top" is very expensive from a COGS standpoint; and will complicate your business economics, not simplify them. You don't seem to have a problem where open-source is the answer; the problem you seem to have is you built a business and a business model you weren't intending to build; and you don't solve that by open-sour…
I agree, but I don't see any point in selling it. I'd instead post the code and use it in all my other businesses without depending on the buyer. Besides, there is still a market for Odoo and Zoho integrators, and I think we can try to gather some of these people around our product.
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#28I would definitely focus more than anything on figuring out what kind of license you want to do. For example AGPL is probably the most sensible if you want to force anyone making back-end changes to share them back, but it also puts off people like me, who avoid that license like the plague, but when something is AGPL and I only care about using it as-is, that's perfectly fine. The caveat there being you could dual-l…
isn't most YC open-core products AGPL basically not really open source unless you pay them for it?
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#29I would definitely focus more than anything on figuring out what kind of license you want to do. For example AGPL is probably the most sensible if you want to force anyone making back-end changes to share them back, but it also puts off people like me, who avoid that license like the plague, but when something is AGPL and I only care about using it as-is, that's perfectly fine. The caveat there being you could dual-l…
Would it make sense to have a license that gives any contributors a full license as long as they have ownership in the company they want to use it with or if that company makes a million in revenue?
my counter: how would you know if someone is using your AGPL software without paying you and how would you enforce it?
Re: Ask HN: How can we open-source a 7 year old SaaS codebase and build a community?
#30I don't know when this trend or became common acceptance but its puzzling to me:
Open sourcing for the sake of generating buzz in hopes of more sales ?
Isn't by open sourcing you remove that option to pay you?
What would somebody do with 38k lines of code that captures tech debt/esoteric workflows?