
Ask HN: How to fund an open source project? - Capira
A few months ago I built an App that people seem to like a lot: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=snapdrop&amp;src=typd [1]<p>Now I&#x27;d love to work on it full time, but I&#x27;d like to keep it free and open source. 
Do you have any suggestion on how to fund it?
Thanks a lot!
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mpbm
Any time you ask for money your job changes. If you just want to work on an
open source project, you're a developer. If you want people to give you money
for your work and/or the results of it, you're a marketer.

So there's nothing new, just google "marketing" and start learning. It will
take some or all of your time and there will be a learning curve.

You will also have all of the problems of marketing, like not having any idea
if the idea itself just isn't worth money, or if you yourself just haven't
figured out the right pitch to the right audience. You'll have to think like
your customers/donors, instead of like yourself. If you take it at all
seriously you'll start to wonder if you should keep working on what you like
or switch to working on what people will exchange money for.

For example, the software that forms the infrastructure of the internet should
be an obviously easy pitch for money to support development, or at least QA,
but the OpenSSL project got like $2K
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbleed#Root_causes.2C_poss...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbleed#Root_causes.2C_possible_lessons.2C_and_reactions)

The only way to get money is to hustle.

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Capira
[1] Clickable link:
[https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=snapd...](https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=snapdrop&src=typd)

