Mike Pall answering me on HN: [LuaJIT author here:] I'm not so sure the business model of LuaJIT can easily be applied to other open source projects. I mean, I've been running a business for more than 15 years. I basically downscaled consulting as I've acquired paid open source work. It pays less, but I'm happier now. I think you'd have a hard time doing this from zero, without some backup plan or enough funds of your own. Well, have a look at the price point of scripting languages, toolchains and such. Getting a vague business plan for an open source project in the toolchain/middleware business through a VC round? I don't think so. Business knowledge was essential, too. Negotiating open source sponsorship contracts with corporate lawyers for half a year is not that easy. Some companies were extremely easy to work with, but I guess sponsoring open source projects is simply not an established business procedure at most companies. I don't think you could possibly afford to hire an international IP lawyer to do this for you. Actually it was the economic downturn of 2008 which triggered all of this. The (rarely followed) advice is to invest in a downturn, because you'll be the first one to come out ahead in the following upturn. Ok, so I invested my time and knowledge into a new project (#). It worked out for me, but in retrospect I realize it was a high risk investment. Final words: you think we're seeing some kind of downturn again? Carefully assess the risks and the potential for yourself. But don't be shy if you're onto something good. Innovate, don't replicate. (#) LuaJIT 2.x is a complete rewrite, using the experience gained working on LuaJIT 1.x, but very little of its code. It's been on my backburner since 2007 and the first public release of LuaJIT 2.0 was at the end of 2009. One might say it's about a two man-year investment before it started to pay back. Most of the time was spent on doing research and prototyping rather than writing code. I coded and then threw away almost three complete virtual machines in the process, because these approaches turned out to be dead ends. I bet you'd need a lot of courage to explain this to a VC. ;-)