I guess that's why patents are annoying. I have been Mr. Open Source and against intellectual property for most of the past 15 years. But with AI companies rampantly taking everyone's work and repurposing it, and with VC companies not being very eager to invest in open source, I'm taking a different tack with my AI ventures.
My first two companies are radically open source, and no one cared:
Don't worry, we're not looking to get into it with some random other projects. It's mostly to protect our business model against the Big Tech and enterprises.
Phase 2:
7. Sell shares to MS, Oracle, IBM
8. They do most of the Enterprise Sales
How comfortable are you that these firms do this and do this this way? MS, for example, doesn't really sell to a majority of its customers, they support VARs. And for IBM, do you mean Kendryl? Is your product a gateway to their products, generally causing a bundle to be sold? Are you familiar with firms like yours that have an arrangement where these enterprises bought shares then go sell on the startup's behalf? Note, it is indeed helpful if you can claim you're patented, but not to protect your "business model" (too many ways to work around a patent, or more likely, get it invalidated), more to suggest you have something.
I think I gave you product feedback on Qbix at some point in the past. I also know several founders who’ve secured funding for open source products and built successful businesses off of them. Open-core is pretty popular out here in the Bay Area.
One thing I’ve learned since staring a company is that early on, your greatest asset is trust in your founder/brand, because it’s the only reason for someone to pay you for something until you get your shit together. I’ve personally had a hard time noticing it in myself sometimes, but I think it’s easy to overlook how outward signaling that might look like distrust (eg making users sign NDAs) damages your own ability to build trust. Since early startups tend to be considered untrustworthy by default it can be really counterproductive. Anyway, I appreciate your non-aggression policy
Would you consider arranging a call to discuss our respective projects? If you're building something along these lines, then I think we might end up joining forces.
I've always preferred collaboration and joining forces building on each other's work, than competition and incompatibility.
My first two companies are radically open source, and no one cared:
https://github.com/Qbix
https://github.com/Intercoin
And this is what we're doing now with AI, but it's not going to be as open: https://engageusers.ai/deck.pdf
Don't worry, we're not looking to get into it with some random other projects. It's mostly to protect our business model against the Big Tech and enterprises.