[shrimpx]

Opt-out telemetry in companies based on open source projects has become a critical component of YC applications, VC pitches, and acquisition pitches. If it was opt-in of course nobody would turn it on. It's shady but I also somewhat understand the founders who are doing product-led growth by giving out the product on GitHub/PyPI, yet still need some usage metrics to quantify the stickiness to their backers. Pip installs and git clones/forks are only a loose indicator of real usage.

[derealized]

How about tracking licenses or subscriptions sold and show that to investors?

[shrimpx]

How do you do that with an OSS project that's on GitHub?

[sdf4j]

by not trying to turn it into a VC fueled rent-seeking cash cow?

[shrimpx]

Fair enough.

[derealized]

By switching to a proprietary license for your proprietary product.

If we call things by their names, it's not surprising at all and actually makes solving the situation much easier.

[adamrezich]

if it's a paid product and it's part of an agreement for support then sure, but for a free product? when you know some high percentage of users are never going to even know that the option to opt out exists?

man... the modern YC/VC webdev game is rough.