Monetize

[tyler-dane]

I've written this to create space for a discussion, so suggestions and feedback are very welcome.

The Problem

It's no secret that Focus Launcher has struggled to find consistent contributors over the past year. We've had some great developers, designers, and marketers help out. But often contributors will gradually become more unresponsive until they disappear entirely.

That cycle is perfectly fine; not everyone has the bandwidth to become a lifelong core contributor. But we don't have enough consistency or leadership to keep progressing during the quieter periods. Without consistent progress, Focus Launcher loses its appeal. Potential contributors see the inactivity as a red flag and decide to volunteer their time with projects that have a more immediate impact. Without contributors, the product and community slowly atrophies into irrelevance.

The Solution

Getting a few core contributors who can commit to consistently working on the project. One lead Kotlin developer, and one marketing/community lead at the least. In order to make these roles sustainable, we'll need to compensate people. And in order to do that, we'll need to monetize.

How to Monetize

A few ideas:

1. Introduce a premium version of Focus Launcher
   • Ideally, this would generate sufficient profits to fund the core contributors, and no other strategies need to be taken.
2. Incorporate and raise money

• The code is open-source, so a community member could make a fork, create a company, raise funding, and pay core contributors with those funds until reaching profitability.
• Raising funds could be through venture capital, initial coin offering, donations, grants, or other common routes.
• Note: I don't have the bandwidth to lead a funding cycle, so someone else will need to step up if we take this route.

3. ? What'd I miss? Share you ideas in comments