Ask HN: Considerations for open sourcing a startup's code?

[bhb]

I am a cofounder at a small startup (http://devver.net) that will be shutting down soon.

We hate to see our work completely disappear. We are currently looking for a company to purchase our code but we're also considering open-sourcing parts of our code base.

We have investors and we're aware that "giving away" the code they paid to develop will not be very enticing, but if we spend our own time to do the prep work (and if we can show that the process is low-risk), they may prefer that to the code simply disappearing.

Does anyone have experience open-sourcing a previously closed-source code base, especially in a startup? Any advice, considerations, success/horror stories, or ideas would be appreciated.

[cperciva]

I doubt investors would want to see the code they paid for released under a truly free license, since that would destroy any ability they might have to make money from it in the future. (Even if you're shutting down, they might fund another startup which they could sell the code to.)

However, you might be able to convince them to release the code under the GPL, since that leaves the option of dual licensing open -- in fact, you might be able to spin GPLing the code to your investors as a marketing tactic.

[wastedbrains]

Does anyone know if any of the YC companies have Open sourced code as they shut down?

[zck]

Reddit open sourced their codebase, but obviously didn't shut down.

[wastedbrains]

good call, perhaps We should ping them about the experience