[tpae]

I was thinking about starting an open source project like Wordpress, Ghost.io, etc.. Then create a market for templates. There used to be more "production ready" open source projects back in the day.. Not as much anymore.

Some open source project ideas:

- subscription commerce (open source birchbox model)

- location based platform for mobile apps (open source Uber/Lyft model)

- host your own airbnb page (open source airbnb)

etc..

essentially, any type of successful business model that can be replicated in other industries, open source it, then monetize on templates.

[RickS]

Disclaimer: I have no stats to back this up, at all. Just been in the game awhile.

The entry level commerce space (shopify, opencart, woocommerce, etc) always feels overcrowded, but few things really nail it.

Opencart is the only truly free service that's a contender, and it's terrible. Granted - ecommerce, especially security, is very difficult, and asking for that in a free product is lofty.

If you can build a commerce platform that's as low-investment as opencart (read: free) with the UX quality of shopify, and just let it into the wild, you can make an absolute killing by owning the plugin and template market associated.