To succeed as an open source company:

• Allow people to download, install, and run the code. There is no other way to evaluate software
• Offer a free version
• Revenue could be created by offering a more powerful ‘full’ version, by selling specialized modules, allowing removal of a license/copyright notice, support - both technical and end user, training, books and materials.
• Foster a community with forums, welcome contributions
• Choose a product carefully. No product can be everything to everyone. Even within the chosen market, be sure you can do an excellent job with your stated mission.
• Strive to keep hosting requirements simple. A good framework can be a tremendous help
• Partner with complimentary software toolkits, and integrate them in such a way that they can be reused within a site
• Provide a modular, extensible architecture so the application can be customized
• Separate the application and design, and allow multiple views into the application. Thus, web, modile, and applications can perform the same functions without application changes.
• Provide a robust documentation structure, online. Allow contributions from the community
• Present successful implementations of your software (links to sites), so people can see what it can do.
• Provide good upgrade mechanisms
• Connect with commonly used applications, such as OpenOffice and Microsoft products
• Offer a loose partnership program to help people find companies which support your product, but avoid complex agreements and fees.