The author reflects on their journey with open-source software, starting with a radical approach of only using permissive licenses, rejecting donations, and later realizing the financial implications of their decisions. They shifted to using copyleft licenses, implementing CLAs, and transitioning to commercial licenses. Despite initial struggles with monetization, the author successfully shifted to a paid subscription model for EmailEngine, increasing prices over time with surprising success. This change allowed for steady revenue, enabling the author to work full-time on their project. The author regrets not starting to sell software earlier and highlights the reliability of selling to business customers over depending on donations.
https://docs.emailengine.app/how-i-turned-my-open-source-project-into/