Ask HN: Startup shutting down, should we open source?

After 5 years of building and fighting for our startup, we’ve reached the end — the product will be shut down soon. I won’t mention names to keep this from sounding promotional. Let’s just say it’s a kind of website builder.

We’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to sell the codebase. Meanwhile, some of our most loyal users are now asking us to open source it. Part of me feels this would be a meaningful way to give back and ensure the project doesn’t completely disappear.

However, I can also foresee a lot of technical and legal complications, not to mention potential maintenance burdens.

Has anyone here been through this before? Any lessons, regrets, or advice?

Thanks a lot in advance!

(AI used to improve spelling)

14 points

・

amadeoeoeo

・

16 days ago

39 comments

toast0 ・ 16 days ago

> However, I can also foresee a lot of technical and legal complications, not to mention potential maintenance burdens.

Shouldn't have a maintenance burden. That burden will be extinguished with the corporation.

If I were you, I'd put it on github with a corporate account, leave a readme that it's abandoned and then mark the repo read-only.

Let (interested) customers know and encourage them to fork it. Disable issues and pull requests before you publish.

Alternatively, put a source dump on your website, and let people know they can put it on Github, but you're not doing it. If nobody republishes it before the corporate site goes down, it is what it is.

  • brudgers ・ 16 days ago

    What you say makes sense if there actually is a corporate shield.

    Because “startup” is often used in a weak sense only to mean “new business,” there may not be corporate protections for the beneficial owners of this startup.

    If it is a Silicon Valley style startup, then the founders probably ought to talk to their investors because that relationship matters and the investors probably know something about open sourcing code bases from shut downs.

sexyman48 ・ 16 days ago

I wouldn't do it. It'd be like a dead lover. Don't get suckered into prettying up her corpse on the off chance your opinion of necrophilia changes.

  • authorfly ・ 15 days ago

    100%.

    Dealing with 5 year old code is okay now. In 10 years it will cause you pain. It's like going back to an ex after you lose attraction. It never works out and hurts both parties (in this case your users, because you won't maintain it or want to pretty soon)

    • HenryBemis ・ 14 days ago

      And or if you got any dependencies (even to "open" 'stuff') when vulnerabilities and bugs arise that will break the backwards compatibility to your codebase you will definitely be tempted/lured/asked to spend "only 5 mins" to update it.

      Just don't. Keep a copy wherever others suggested, keep a photo in the folder with the ex-bf/gf think about it every few years (I wonder how she is doing - in a Morty voice) and quickly move on!

  • bravesoul2 ・ 16 days ago

    Whoa... wasn't expecting that as a reply

  • amadeoeoeo ・ 16 days ago

    lol. To be clear I like her the way she is... It did not work financially but I believe it is a neat piece of code. I keep "using it" myself regularly ;)

dataf3l ・ 16 days ago

I believe the Haiku people open sourced after their company was down, I saw it as an act of good faith towards the people who trusted them, I say try open sourcing it, who knows what the future holds...

throwawayffffas ・ 16 days ago

Open source but make it clear that the project will not receive any updates. If any of your clients want to pick it up they will be able to fork it.

> Legal complications

If your code was written by you and you are not infringing on any patents and you don't have any client data in your repos, you should be fine I guess, but I am not a lawyer.

Just make it MIT and open it to the public. Make sure there are no keys or credentials in the repos either.

  • amadeoeoeo ・ 16 days ago

    Thanks for the advice. One fear I have is about security. Is the code is exposed, it will be way easier to exploit potential security flaws... I will not be able to just do nothing if this is the case .. Ill end up wanting it.

    • throwawayffffas ・ 16 days ago

      > It will be way easier to exploit potential security flaws.

      It will be also easier for other people to find them and report or fix them.

      In general it's a bad plan to rely on code secrecy for security. It's security through obscurity which never works out. All the cryptography schemes and algorithms are public. Most of the public internet runs on open source code. Transparency is a strength, not a weakness.

    • ezekg ・ 16 days ago

      What's to exploit? The company won't exist anymore...

      • amadeoeoeo ・ 16 days ago
        ・ 2 more

        People's servers hosting it. I will not be officially responsible but anyway not nice. I may be just paranoid

        • justinrubek ・ 15 days ago

          This is the risk we accept when we use something like this. I think it's fine to put it up. If there are security issues, the community of people that use it can respond accordingly.

onel ・ 16 days ago

I would recommend you make it open source. I've also done this the past as well. Even if it's a project that is not maintained you don't know how it might help someone else.

Flundstrom2 ・ 16 days ago

I would suggest putting it out as open source with a permissive license that don't require upstream commitment.

Because you don't want to become a maintainer. Just make it clear that it is provided as-is, without support.

It does after all represent a lot of value having been poured into it, worthy of a better ending than rm -rf, even if it didn't reach break-even.

tukantje ・ 16 days ago

This really depends on what field the product is in.

In my opinion; if you can't sell it you could also try to hand it over to another company / third party. Finding someone to take over a project takes a bit of time but it'd allow for it to survive.

However you need legal advice, fast. First talk to a lawyer who understands this.

leakycap ・ 13 days ago

If you don't open source it, it will either wither and be abandoned or someone clever will "open source it" for you in a way you may not like.

Software is hard to kill. See Softpress Freeway as an example in the same industry.

  • amadeoeoeo ・ 13 days ago

    Hey, I do not quite understand your statement. How should this happen? Ex Devs? Hacking my git account? Or do you mean something else?

    • leakycap ・ 11 days ago

      Something else: I support some long term clients still using some 1990s software that I've ported to run within a VM on modern hardware. I ended up using developer tools made in the 2000s to decompile the executable and make changes to the software, others have done so and posted their own version. These tools were not available when the developer walked away, so they probably never envisioned these changes.

      With AI and other tools developing rapidly, I wouldn't be surprised if someone was able to do things with your code in ways you didn't expect, even if you choose not to open source it yourself.

five9s ・ 16 days ago

I think it could be a nice emotional ending to the journey if that's where you are. At least it's 'out there' in the world and you can move on. I'll be a one time effort to get it out there, but then can be community supported.

N_FI ・ 16 days ago

> some of our most loyal users are now asking us to open source it

In exchange of the code ask them to make a non profit organization and handle the rights to them. They will be responsibles for their security in case of vulnerabilities.

brudgers ・ 16 days ago

[random advice from the internet]

If you really want to put an open source project out in the world the right way, taking what you learned and building an appropriate code base might be a better route.

And if you don’t really want to put an open source project out in the world, that’s okay.

Your customers had an interest in paying you enough to stay in business. They did not pay enough (and maybe because you did not charge enough).

And to me, it seems like you are probably ready to move on and now is probably a good time for moving on. Good luck.

  • amadeoeoeo ・ 16 days ago

    What does "appropriate code base mean"? If I did it, then I would of course cleanse a bit here and there, make the corpse prettier as somebody wrote in another comment. More thant that, however, is an amount of work which is just not viable. Thanks!

    • saulpw ・ 16 days ago

      Yeah, no one wants some abandoned open source project for a defunct business. The only value is in code that is living and maintained. So if you're not willing to make it a living, maintained codebase, then don't bother releasing your source code, it's not even worth 10 hours of your time, since no one will use it.

      • creer ・ 16 days ago
        ・ 2 more

        > Yeah, no one wants some abandoned open source project for a defunct business.

        That's not true. The OP mentions there are current users. Some of the current customers might be able to use ANY distribution to patch problems for a while. Eventually, someone mightneed to decide on serious maintenance or not. But initially it quite possibly would not require much.

        When there are current users, the future may not be a thriving project but may be simply a patched up current solution. Nothing wrong with that.

        I suspect this is the case pretty often: a current solution is not great but it's in place. The code itself is nothing to write home about, but it's in place. Patching problems in the code might be the easier path for the user.

        • brudgers ・ 16 days ago 

            Logical Possibility != Statistical Likelihood
    • brudgers ・ 16 days ago

      An open source code base built for long term collaboration is likely to be organized differently than a code base written under desperate business conditions (which a dying company is).

      Or to put it another way, if it’s not a hell-yes, it’s a No in practice. Even if you don’t want it to be one. Open source projects need enthusiasm. Only Google can get away with throwing code over the wall.

    • throwawayffffas ・ 14 days ago

      I think he means properly maintained and worked on.

VirusNewbie ・ 16 days ago

Sell it to a customer for pennies (or more, if they're willing), have them/allow them to open source it.

SoberPingu ・ 14 days ago

What is the stack? Feel free to send financial details to my username at proton dot me.

cbenskxk ・ 14 days ago

legal aspects aside, it kinda makes sense to open source it just for archival and educational purposes. in github there's an archive option, communities can fork it and work on it if they want.

msgodel ・ 16 days ago

See if you can put it under the [a]GPL and create a consulting niche around it.

  • amadeoeoeo ・ 16 days ago

    That is interesting. May I ask what do you mean by "if you can"? Thx

    • msgodel ・ 16 days ago

      If you have the rights/if your customers will tolerate it.

      EDIT: to clarify as I realize that was pretty vague.

      1) Depending on how you use your dependencies you may have a licensing conflict that makes the GPL incompatible.

      2) I think your shareholders/VCs/whoever holds the equity (or if you're bankrupt the senior bondholders) probably own the copyright for the code so you would need their permission.

almosthere ・ 16 days ago

See if you can auction it off - at least you'll make some money that way.

sherdil2022 ・ 16 days ago

What is the product and source code about?