Ask HN: Build trust for closed source product
Hi HN,
I'm a developer of an early B2C niche product. Software is free and intended to be free. My plan is to charge for services only when there a demand for that service. So pretty fair deal - no rug-pulling, just a free software without any catch.
My audience care about privacy and security a lot. At least 5% of people asked if it's possible to make product open source.
With all respect to open-source I think it removes one of the moats - code. With AI and things like https://malus.sh/ it feels like open sourcing commercial product is way to loose one of the moats. It's not quite possible to vibe-code similar product at the moment (I honestly tried - LLMs are not there yet for my language and domain).
Thus said, I understand that people are not asking about the code itself. It will just feel more secure if they can skim it and verify if there is any security/privacy problems.
Is there any way to build trust without giving the code away? You could provide code to enterprise customers for a fee, with contractural restrictions on how they can use it. You could also have trusted third parties see the code and vouch for it. Or you may decide that the 5% asking for this feature aren’t worth it. You don’t have to capture every customer. Think about what your own needs are. Moats are only required till the need is meet. Sorry I'm dumb. had to ask LLM what you mean. Do you mean Your moat only matters until you’ve solved a real user need. Once the need is clearly being met, the moat matters less than trust, adoption, and execution. If yes - I wonder what does it mean for a product. Do you mean that after need is met (PMF reached) no one can beat:
- brand
- distribution
- support
- community? I said your needs. Think about why you are doing what you are doing. And at what point that need is met.
So if your need is financial then you say my need is to recover my costs(time you put in * hourly rate+hardware costs+energy costs etc etc) + some profit. Once you have achieved that the moat becomes less important right?
If the need is not financial but this project is going to look good on my resume and get me more interesting work, then the moment you do get a better job the moat doesnt matter.
So I was encouraging you to think about why you do what you do. Cuz after you feel like you have meet your own needs moats matter less. That's a great point! For me it's a combination of two. Personal validation - "can I build something people love?" And financial - "can I build a successful company around it?" So this way there is no event after which the project becomes less relevant for me. It's a process, and I expect it to be along process. That's the reason I can't commit to open-sourcing my product at some point in time. However at the same time there are pretty successful companies that have a trust of being "secure and privacy first":
- Apple
- Telegram While at the same time there are pretty good counter examples:
- PostHog
- Signal