Don't Be an Underpants Gnome ![rw-book-cover](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5fc555ef5720c63c9f70c2fd/5fc560893c6ccf69f3130387/64c220846d2e250581ca186f/1690444280109/?format=1500w) ## Metadata - Author: [[Emily Omier]] - Full Title: Don't Be an Underpants Gnome - Category: #articles - Summary: Too many people get into open source businesses thinking that a big user base, or a big community, will be easy to monetize. It’s like underpants gnomes, except: Phase 1: Collect users Phase 2: ? Phase 3: Profit Investors often push this narrative, which does founders no favors. A project that - URL: https://www.emilyomier.com/blog/dont-be-an-underpants-gnome Too many people get into open source businesses thinking that a big user base, or a big community, will be easy to monetize. It’s like underpants gnomes, except: Phase 1: Collect users Phase 2: ? Phase 3: Profit Investors often push this narrative, which does founders no favors. A project that people love does not guarantee a product that people will pay money for. Project-market fit in no ways guarantees product-market fit. You have to think about both user/community growth *and* how that growth is going to translate to revenue. Some content could not be imported from the original document. [View content ↗](https://www.youtube.com/embed/a5ih_TQWqCA?wmode=opaque), Don't Be an Underpants Gnome, Emily Omier, 01h6bzh31n96v41t2q0dvat334.