Challenging the rules

Most people reading this will know my time is currently being consumed by the KumoMTA project. This high-volume messaging engine has been super exciting to develop, but the business model behind it is even more interesting than the software itself. To say we are challenging the rules would be an understatement. I wrote about the concept of open-source software before, so let’s start the conversation there. 

Developing open-source software is one thing; building a business around it is a whole different story. I have been writing and selling commercial software for decades, and I have also created freeware I’ve shared publicly, but I had never thought about how to earn income from free software. The whole idea seems “upside down“. The key here is to think of the software as a “vehicle” to the income as opposed to the “source” of the income. It is the raw medium for our paid support and professional services work. 

Revenue is only one part of a business model, though. What about sales, marketing, support, customer success and HR? When one part of the business model changes, it usually affects the others, so why not radically rethink all aspects of the business. What if we chose not to have a sales and marketing team at all? What if we spent that energy on building a community of users and supporters. What if we combine customer success and support into a new role that is more technical-customer-success-engineer? Let’s get radical and have no office, no official hours, and performance-based compensation and recognition? 

When you start to dissect every component of the business model, there are so many opportunities to turn ideas on their head and ask “why”? Why do we do it this way? How important are titles and roles? Do we really need that process/expense/function? What really matters at the end of the day? 

I have built (and helped to build) a number of businesses in the traditional way, some of them actually successful. This new adventure with KumoMTA is a whole new ballgame and offers an opportunity to examine the way business, in general, functions. I’m looking forward to turning it all upside down. 

Be Awesome; Change the World.