[hinkley]

While this plays out with OSS quite a bit, it's not limited to just free software.

You are almost always spending more on an early adopter than they are paying you for your software, but typically that's with the understanding that you are re-selling those solutions to new customers.

That hasn't always been the case. I've worked at a couple of startups where one of our customers was exuberant about how critical we were to their roadmap, but part of why they were so happy was because they were getting a sweetheart deal, and we couldn't figure out how to tell them no, or sign them to a more lucrative contract because the one they have is already so nice, they'd be fools to sign a different one.

And then they go pikachu face when we either went under or got sold to someone whose career (and probably no small part of their job satisfaction) was built around saying No if you were lucky, and Fuck you, Pay me if you weren't.