“It goes without saying that this holds true for nearly every technology company founded in the last decade, whether it is publicly acknowledged or not,” Nadh added.

While there is no shortage of companies building businesses and raising money off the back of open source software, not every community-driven project lends itself to becoming a commercial entity. Some open source tools are more akin to Lego blocks: key components of a software stack, for sure, but difficult to monetize directly — particularly in the early days.