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The original was posted on /r/opensource by /u/thebarbican19 on 2023-09-06 19:22:13.

A few weeks back I set out on a small venture.

The goal was to create something small to get me motivated again and to build something fun. I also wanted to dip my toes into open-source as after 13 years of being a developer it was time I gave something back to the community that made me.

The small app called BatteryBoi was at first a menu bar to replace the existing battery indicator on macOS. Now with v2, it has many more features and full UI.

Since its launch, the project has what I would consider a huge success. It now sits at **almost 6k downloads and 600 daily active users (in just over 2 weeks). **I am honestly blown away with the reception. In 13 years (in tech and development) I’ve never had feedback and love on an app quite like this.

But with all the time and demand for new feature I simply cannot afford financially to spent any more time on this project as it doesn’t bring in nearly enough money - In donations the app has pulled in $120. That’s about $0.20 per download.

Of course, I am grateful to every single person for donating to this free open-source project but this amount is not enough to keep it alive.

How do open-source companies do it? I know many will pull in donations from big companies, but this project is not really aimed at big companies, more so a B2C project. Furthermore, I have very little insight on the user base other than they own a Mac and what country they are in, plus my knowledge of this space is incredibly limited.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.