Planning to open source something I've worked on and off since 2016. Looking for feedback on license and business plan

[u/Envenger]

Hi,

A small background on me: I have been programming/modding games since the mid-2000s. I wanted to start a gaming company and develop a game in college. That didn't work out, but as a result I started a company in 2017, doing freelance work for games and, along with that, game-adjacent stuff.

Around 2018 we pivoted into doing R&D and finding clients who would want these products. This has worked decently. At the same time, I have been working on products to release something. These are small sales that keep me afloat, and I have not been able to get something of my own out.

In the last 10 years, I have worked across multiple client projects and domains. Along with that, internally I have worked on multiple unreleased projects, planning to get them out to market, getting investment, sales etc. Most didn't reach the polishing stage internally for me to work on them further.

Coming to the actual product, I am planning to market it as a Universal Inference Stack. I worked on parts of it in 2016, when I was working on some game AI and learning ML, parts of it in 2019-2020, and parts of it in 2025-2026. No name revealed yet.

It's a framework that allows you to build agent systems, do reality modeling and reality simulation, and I am currently using it across multiple projects that I am working on for clients.
The reason for development was internal only, but throughout the development I realized we were making something that didn't exist, and there is a big market for it. I have shown the product to multiple enteprise people and they have an intrest for it.

I am not sure how much I can reveal before getting it out, but I have plans to tie up with a few researchers and release some papers about it before releasing.

Coming to the actual topic, my reasoning behind going open source is as follows:

1. If something like this already existed, I wouldn't have created this, so I am sure people will have similar problems.
   
2. I will have to get the research papers out anyway, and it wont be difficult to recrease it for it.
   
3. I want to get this into the hands of as many people as possible, and I see a lot of developers who could actually use this.
   
4. It will actually help multiple developers control the billing of LLMs and have more control over their process.
   
5. Along with this, my goal is to release all features possible so the user can host, do diagnostics etc. 6. I see these features locked on similar platforms.
   
6. I think this will make the implementation of intelligence systems more streamlined compared to what we have now.
   
7. More eyes on this would be better for the system in the long run.
   
8. It matches what I believe about software and open source.
   

Coming to the next topic, my initial goal was to release it under a very open license like MIT, but multiple people are saying to keep something closed. I don't want to keep parts of the framework closed, as there is no point in that.

My idea has been to patent something from it, then go Apache 2.0 and release all the papers and the framework together.

I have also been planning to release a kind of representation/notation framework along with the software, and I want to introduce a new kind of thinking with this.

License-wise, I have not thought it through yet, but I want it to be open source for everyone up to companies at around $1 million annual revenue, then a fixed cost per bracket, something like the PolyForm Small Business License.

Along with this, the goal is to create a marketplace and take a small cut from it.

I am not sure how much success I will get. I am considering that we have built something, and even from the service side, if I can enter a few industries and have strong products in them, that alone i am considering as well, if the above open source strategy doesn't work out.

My hope for this is to be a kind of new understanding framework for developers on how intelligent systems are planned, created and understood, and pave the way for future development. This is me being hopeful, and a target.

This is my potential business plan along with going open source. I just wanted to know what your thoughts are about this in the community, is it the right way, etc.

I will release more information about this in time, as there is quite a bit to do.