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How Open Source Drives Down Startup Costs
prostoalex writes "Reuters Plugged In article (usually syndicated to your local paper's Technology section) talks about the real impact of open source in the technology world -- cutting down startup costs for other developers. New ventures are coming out, where the startup costs range in five-digit numbers, not seven-digit figures, where venture capital financing would be required. The article talks about Project for Open Source Media, Blogger.com, Odeo and Asterisk telephone system."
If you can get a company going for five figures, you have my respect. I am trying to get a startup going and after doing alot of analysis, the cheapest I think I can do it is for just over 7. Each business if different but getting one running for 90K is just about impossible. That won't even cover two people for six months. I guess you would need a product already written and a customer already signed up to even think about this. But FOSS does make running a software business alot cheaper. If you have five developers, it would save probably 5K a year at least and that is assuming you don't need anything special that can be replaced with a FOSS alternative. Good luck.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
What he said and what you said are at different levels. IP is network, level 3, TCP and UDP are transport, level 4.
Of course, we all know he meant "Intellectual Property", but it's still fun to out-geek each other.
- 1) Programmer willing to work for percentage.
This is one of the biggest challenges. Not everyone can work for no or minimal salary for a year or two, but it's a huge win if you can.Salaries are really expensive. Fully loaded costs (including benefits, etc.) are $10k/month. A few salaries and you'll have burned through all your cash before you know it.
Burn rate is like a ticking clock on your startup. When you hit 0, it's game over, man. Keeping the burn low is key.
Exactly. Ideas are worthless. Executing on the ideas, that's worth something.
cheap, Costco furniture
I'm not sure what Costcos you've been shopping at (certainly not their expensive Home Store) but Costco's decent furniture at a mid range price. The cheap stuff's at IKEA and Fred Meyer.
The internet is based on OSS. All of the core is open. 10-20 years ago, you could get AOL, MSN, and others at $20/month. It offered just a fraction of what it does today. Now, it is at 20/month for modem and ~40 for highspeed ( in capitalistic america and 5 in most other countries). So you ask where is your OSS broadband? All around you.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Needing less money makes courting the Venture Capital that much easier. Instead of asking for several millions, you ask for just one or two. Which is easier?
I don't know about asking, but I would bet that it is easier to get twenty million than it is to get 1 million. Most VCs don't care about companies with a valuation of 2-6 million, it isn't worth their time. See this http://www.paulgraham.com/venturecapital.html from Paul Graham (creator of Yahoo stores). Since they have to manage each deal, venture capitalists want big deals, not small deals.