
Input on turning a side-project into a job - leifross
Hey, I am Leif.<p>In my spare time I have created a new cloud platform.
The idea is to make cloud computing more approachable, to the point where everyone can use it.<p>From the user side the system is essentially a cloud OS with a web interface, where performing massive operations such as simulations and big-data analysis is just as easy as using a regular desktop application.
The system manages the resources automatically, without the user needing to know about what happens in the background.<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=gg4Loeuu0pM<p>This is how the platform looked a few months ago, since then I have been working on a package manager and a new system to handle ES6 imports &#x2F; exports to replace our current linking system.<p>Last summer I told a friend about the system, there was an instant connection, and we decided to start a company together. He was the perfect counterpart to my engineering background, while I developed the platform, he was the human side of the company.<p>With no money and no connections, funding the newborn enterprise was not a simple ordeal, what we did was working regular tech jobs during the day, and creating our platform during the night.
We managed to get into a local startup program, leading to a deal where we got more money than we had ever seen in the form of AWS credits.<p>Fast-forward 6 months, and here we are.
What we realized is that what we really are passionate about is the technology.
So in this moment of self-discovery we figured out what we really want in life is to be full-time developers on this platform.<p>And this is where we need advice, our optimal situation would be for a larger company to buy us out and then hire us as developers, but we also want to open-source the platform.<p>What we are looking for is for someone who has been in similar shoes to share experience or advice regarding the situation.
We are deeply grateful for any input on the topic.
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skaplun
Is anyone using what you created? You didnt mention users or any human
interest in what youre building

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leifross
A few months ago we had alpha testers for ui-testing, but right now the system
is not released.

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skaplun
get users

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leifross
Usually boils down to that yeah.

But with users comes problems that we currently don't have the money or time
to deal with. After the workday is complete, we have on average 2-3 hours to
work on the platform. If we did this under the cape of a "big-brother", we
would have more time and resources to deal with issues that we currently
can't, such as marketing, legal and economic issues. And would be able to
dedicate the entire day to get the system ready to go public.

If we could dedicate the entire day to development of the system, we could
release in a matter of weeks. At the current rate we are lucky if we can get
the system online by early-spring, but considering that this is not a
traditional social b2c startup, that might be fine.

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brudgers
Find users that understand the limitations and find value in the product. That
also means that what you work on will be what the users _actually_ want rather
than what they _might_ want or what is fun to work on.

A good filter for what users find valuable is that they will pay for it.

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leifross
That makes a lot of sense, thanks!

Do you have any opinion if we should open-source the project?

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brudgers
1\. What's the business model that uses open source?

2\. Yes, I have an opinion. Fooling around with open sourcing the project is
easier than shipping something useful and finding users and engaging with
them. Until a significant fraction of people care about the project, nobody
cares whether it's open source.

3\. Open sourcing a project is not a road to free labor. Building a community
of users is a potential way to garner useful pull requests. But a community of
users comes first.

4\. Generally, my impression is that building a community of open source users
is harder than finding customers for a business.

Good luck.

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leifross
Alright, thanks! We will hold off on the open-source idea for now.

