Free 'basic' versions and paid 'pro' versions of software are very common, so it's definately _possible_ that it could be viable. If you want to get investment you'll have to make as convincing an argument as possible that 1) in your hands, 2) with your product, and 3) with your market, it _will_...
Hi, You could use something like a Website as a Service (WaaS) that allows you to create a platform that users can sign up to and pay you monthly for a service. You just need a domain name (example.com) and then users would get a subdomain (user.example.com) or they can register their own domain...
It sounds like you are headed in the direction of WordPress. Do you want to create an e-commerce portion, too? Check out http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/. Cheers! Let me know if you have any questions.
If you're not a coder, I don't know how you're going to publish code... but I'll look past that. The best thing to do is host the code on Github, then create a website for the project using Github Pages. At that point, gaining traction from the community so other people contribute to it has a lo...
Typically open-source projects that end up generating a profit have an active product that's already being used. So step 1. Is to open source it and see if anyone uses it - then you can make money in a bunch of ways. Checkout Wordpress, MySQL, Linux for examples - but typically it's providing p...
There is a difference between your product being open source versus the tech stack you use to build it being open source. You use email to conduct your business, and that's based on an open standard! Whoever told you it's "absolutely imperative" that you use Rails instead of an "open" language l...
I would use pay-as-you-go model which lets me scale as and when required and pay accordingly. The traditional problem with Home grown software is you can't accurately predict the growth when you open the floodgates. So choosing a pay-as-you-go model works perfectly here. The other constraint I s...
One option is to provide dedicated support while letting the code be open. There are plenty of businesses that run on open, freely available architecture, and they make all their money by selling a "Pro" plan that allows people the security of being able to pick up the phone and ask a question. H...
It is all your decision because if you earn profit out of it people will praise you and if you earn loss people will criticize you. Your profile is great, I really love it as you have really earned so much in the business world is wonderful to read. Best practice product development processes ar...
I mentor startups on the application of product management processes to help them make better decisions. Before you try to do sales analysis and forecasting, you need to find out if your potential licensees see value in using your solution. The best way to do this is to talk to some of their pro...