I would like to build a business around developer tools and see that most of developer tools are open-source (Apollo GraphQL, Prisma, Spring Framework, etc).
However when bootstrapping without venture capital, open-sourcing your work may make it easy to copy you.
Is open-sourcing and running as fast as you can the only viable option for developer tools today?
As soon as one participant decides to give it away for free to increase market
share, then every participant must do the same. So the cost of intellectual
property goes to zero, and everyone now competes in a decidedly less lucrative
market of service contracts.