Now that the company is funded, are you hiring? I'd love to work for a company that has the sole goal of making FOSS sustainable, I even wrote a bit about it here: https://raphael.lullis.net/open-source-funding/
Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
31–40 of 139 posts
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#32Why would I use this instead of the usual ways (GitHub Sponsors, PayPal, Patreon, OpenCollective)?
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#33So a VC-funded company expected to produce unicorn returns is going to accomplish this when non-profits haven't? It doesn't seem logical but I hope someone can pull it off! I would like to learn more about the background of the founders - what they've already done in any way related to this. Why does Polar have a chance?
I mean, before LetsEncrypt, if someone pitched a non--profit that lets you have free SSL certificates for your website, would you have responded similarly? Probably...
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#34We did this in 2010 :). In the years since there has been many similar attempts. This one, however, seems to have all the important things right. Congrats for the funding and good luck!
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#35So a VC-funded company expected to produce unicorn returns is going to accomplish this when non-profits haven't? It doesn't seem logical but I hope someone can pull it off! I would like to learn more about the background of the founders - what they've already done in any way related to this. Why does Polar have a chance?
I mean, before LetsEncrypt, if someone pitched a non--profit that lets you have free SSL certificates for your website, would you have responded similarly? Probably...
If someone pitched a for profit LetsEncrypt I would response similarly!
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#36I have had situations where i wanted to use an open source tool that was somewhat obscure and i would have paid $300-400 an hour for consulting from the maintainers/creators and could not get in contact with anyone. So if you create open source software i recommend posting a link to a consulting business with some minimum price that you are satisfied with, even if its something like $1k an hour.
But the time I might spend working on consulting inquiries is not time spent on the daily job, on the oss project itself (especially if the request is about something not aligned with the roadmap of the project), or on relaxing during free time.
As an oss maintainer, the way I see it is that unless the purpose itself behind the oss code is to make money via consulting, offering consulting is usually not in the interest of the people behind the code.
It is oss, after all. Other companies can form around the project and provide consulting support.
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#37So a VC-funded company expected to produce unicorn returns is going to accomplish this when non-profits haven't? It doesn't seem logical but I hope someone can pull it off! I would like to learn more about the background of the founders - what they've already done in any way related to this. Why does Polar have a chance?
I mean, before LetsEncrypt, if someone pitched a non--profit that lets you have free SSL certificates for your website, would you have responded similarly? Probably...
The key is "VC-funded company", LetsEncrypt was never one.
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#38I wish success to initiatives like that.
From the article I didn't understand the model. Or how it is diffirent from existing projects like https://bountysource.com/ and others.
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#39I have had situations where i wanted to use an open source tool that was somewhat obscure and i would have paid $300-400 an hour for consulting from the maintainers/creators and could not get in contact with anyone. So if you create open source software i recommend posting a link to a consulting business with some minimum price that you are satisfied with, even if its something like $1k an hour.
But the time I might spend working on consulting inquiries is not time spent on the daily job, on the oss project itself (especially if the request is about something not aligned with the roadmap of the project), or on relaxing during free time. As an oss maintainer, the way I see it is that unless the purpose itself behind the oss code is to make money via consulting, offering consulting is usually not in the intere…
There are a million reasons why people write open source software. From what I read, there is a sizable group of creators that make no money from their creations and actually struggle to survive despite having such in-demand skills and I was simply suggesting one way they could get by.
> on the oss projeft itself (especially if the request is about something not aligned with the roadmap of the project)
I disagree that it wouldn't be valuable. You can discover that things you believed were simple to understand were actually complicated or you can discover new use cases you had never thought of. But most importantly if you have no money now you can get money.
Re: Polar v1.0: Let’s Fix Open Source Funding
#40Why would I use this instead of the usual ways (GitHub Sponsors, PayPal, Patreon, OpenCollective)?
From what I understand, Github Sponsors is not granular: you either subscribe to a project or you don't. Polar seems to allow for issue-specific funding and other more granular bits.