[vacri]

RedHat was bought and incorporated by a pre-existing business. It wasn't bootstrapped.

I'd also discourage a patreon- or kickstarter-style offering for a B2B product, because it signals very clearly that you're not playing with the big fish.

[ensignavenger]

Not a bootstrapped business, you mean, like Docker (Explicitly used as an example, to which I was providing a counter-example)?

As for signaling, one would not have to use those providers if they felt it did not fit their brand, and could roll their own platform. But if signaling that you want to "play with the big fish" is what one wants, most companies hire sales team who go out and play golf with prospects. Having an open source product and using other forms of funding certainly does not preclude doing that. (Though being a small bootstrapped business might make it more difficult).