The Maintainer's Dilemma
Monetize an open-source project without killing what made it valuable: community goodwill drives adoption, paid features drive conversion, and every feature you gate spends goodwill you may need later.
Your open-source job-queue library is everywhere: 25,000 installs, glowing conference mentions, and two maintainers (you and your co-founder) paying themselves in exposure. That ends now — you've raised a tiny angel round to build a business on top.
Each month you decide how much of the new roadmap goes behind the paywall, how much you invest back into the community (triage, docs, contributor support), and what the paid tier costs. Gate too little and nobody pays. Gate too much and the community that made you matter starts muttering the F-word: fork.
Win by reaching $12,000 MRR while keeping goodwill at 40+. Lose if the cash runs out — or goodwill collapses and the community walks off with your project.