What to do with my startup?
September 22, 2006 10:06 PM Subscribe
In what direction should I take my internet startup business?
At the beginning of the year I started a startup with some friends. It's a really good Web 2.0 idea; we have been offered funding several times. Unfortunately, in the past few months the team members have had other pressing issues in their lives. It doesn't seem that anyone on the team, myself included, has the time and energy to make this a successful startup.
A little background: the project has a similar infrastructure to multi-user websites like eBay, del.icio.us, or MySpace. Money exchanges might take place between users on the site, and there are of course ways to make the site profitable.
So now we've got a lot of functioning code that's been written, although the project needs more work before launch. What do I do with it? Here are some options I can think of; I'd love to hear others.
* Can I sell the startup, along with our intellectual property?
* What about open-sourcing it, so that the code becomes open-source but the users' data is kept private? (Just as the SourceForge or Connotea websites are open-source.) How much effort would it take for me to maintain ownership of this project? What resources are available for me to learn about doing this?
Note: I know that by default everybody's going to be gung-ho about the open-sourcing option, but remember that I and my startup team have poured hundreds of hours into this project and want to consider ways to compensate ourselves for having done so.
At the beginning of the year I started a startup with some friends. It's a really good Web 2.0 idea; we have been offered funding several times. Unfortunately, in the past few months the team members have had other pressing issues in their lives. It doesn't seem that anyone on the team, myself included, has the time and energy to make this a successful startup.
A little background: the project has a similar infrastructure to multi-user websites like eBay, del.icio.us, or MySpace. Money exchanges might take place between users on the site, and there are of course ways to make the site profitable.
So now we've got a lot of functioning code that's been written, although the project needs more work before launch. What do I do with it? Here are some options I can think of; I'd love to hear others.
* Can I sell the startup, along with our intellectual property?
* What about open-sourcing it, so that the code becomes open-source but the users' data is kept private? (Just as the SourceForge or Connotea websites are open-source.) How much effort would it take for me to maintain ownership of this project? What resources are available for me to learn about doing this?
Note: I know that by default everybody's going to be gung-ho about the open-sourcing option, but remember that I and my startup team have poured hundreds of hours into this project and want to consider ways to compensate ourselves for having done so.
This post was deleted for the following reason: huh.
You did, or else we're both crazy.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 10:13 PM on September 22, 2006
posted by IshmaelGraves at 10:13 PM on September 22, 2006
Why is anonymous now reposting a question lunchbox just asked on the 21st?
posted by paulsc at 10:31 PM on September 22, 2006
posted by paulsc at 10:31 PM on September 22, 2006
Maybe he put it into the anonymous queue, got impatient, posted it under his username, and then mathowie approved it without noticing the double?
posted by MadamM at 10:46 PM on September 22, 2006
posted by MadamM at 10:46 PM on September 22, 2006
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posted by slater at 10:11 PM on September 22, 2006