# Neutron Creative Partnership Strategy Brainstorming ###### tags: `Parternships` ## Background Neutron creative is a company on a mission to improve your least favorite software with open-source. They are a registered startup in the United States, and they currently maintain SingleLink, which powers [links.grey.software ](http://links.grey.software) ![](https://i.imgur.com/Vd4cS5U.png) The SingleLink story is exciting, and I believe that Neutron Creative can replicate this story with many other products. ### Why I believe Neutron Creative needs an education platform I watched a Valuetainment YouTube video that mentioned the necessity of having an education platform alongside every business. The use case given for this is the Valuetainment Youtube channel itself serving as the education platform for Patrick bet-David's life insurance company PHP (People Helping People). Patrick found that he was spending much time training new hires, so he used Valuetainment to teach people at his company how to best contribute to the company's goals. This strategy also helped crowdsource talent that was already primed with the necessary learning content. Patrick's approach requires a level of dedication and transparency that you do not often see in the insurance sales industry. However, in the open-source software industry, transparency and educational documentation are pretty much a norm. There are innovative strategies that open source projects are using to attract more contributions by educating the public with extensive documentation and videos. Neutron Creative's education platform would help onboard new contributors and help keep the existing team oriented towards learning and improving. The world of technology changes fast, and the team must be ready to learn and adapt. ### What does NC have that could benefit GS? Neutron Creative has valuable experience and learning outcomes from launching many open-source SAAS products. They have established a solid online presence through mentions of their name across Twitter and ProductHunt. They are based out of the US, an important country to have a business partner in. They have SingleLink, a product people love. They have money that they could use to back Grey Software on OpenCollective and get their logo front and center all over Grey Software's ecosystem. ### What does GS have that could benefit NC? #### Grey software can help build Neutron Creative's education platform. Grey software could be Neutron Creative's education platform partner. I make my case for why an education platform is necessary in one of the above headings. You need people and money to build and sustain an education platform, and if you would like to outsource your education platform to a partner, they have to be aligned with your practices and technology. We are aligned on Vue and Tailwind, and many of the learning guides and resources that Grey software puts up on their website will be relevant to Neutron Creative's contributors. Creating a learning ecosystem is much work to manage, and I have been fortunate to rely on students whose universities offer credit for open-source apprenticeships. ### How should NC and GS feel about other companies raising astronomically more wealth than them I believe that it is vital for both Neutron creative and Grey software to remember that we may not fit into the mental models of investors within the Western economic machine. When I catch myself falling into the trap of comparing the amount I have raised to other software startups, I have to remind myself that my company is built on different foundations. We have the potential to think of radically different ways of distributing wealth via a royalties program. (See below) We can attract passionate contributors worldwide and secure the same or greater work capacity that other startups would need far more capital to pay for. ### What should NC do with their newly raised capital I should preface this by saying that I do not know all the strings that have been attached with the money given to Neutron creative. #### Think outside the box of hiring FT engineers Companies that follow the traditional software as a service startup route will need full-time dedicated software engineers, designers, and other personnel to execute their business plan. I know that Singlelink's investors will want to see their investment returned through Singlelink being profitable, so it would make sense for a single link to have more dedicated engineers. However, let's think out of the box about how the money could be used not only to benefit Singlelink but also the entire Neutron Creative ecosystem. There could be astronomically different returns. This is also contingent on whether the investors invested in SingleLink or Neutron Creative. ##### Some creative hires: - Developer Success Hacker - Design Lead - Technical education writer - Community manager - Project incubator lead #### Invest into infrastructure that can make software creators happier and more productive I think Neutron Creative's ability to maintain multiple successful open source products depends significantly upon how empowered their developers are. As a solo maintainer for multiple Grey software projects, I have found that decisions like using Vue, switching over to Gitlab, and using HackMD to brainstorm in Markdown before publishing to Gitlab, have made me incredibly more productive. #### Fellowip Program stipends Many bright students and professionals do not or cannot make it into renowned fellowship Programs like MLH. The students are still capable of doing excellent open-source work, and they can do that work at Neutron Creative. #### Invest in software royalties infrastructure This idea still isn't fully developed in my mind, but essentially every maintained piece of software that generates revenue can distribute that revenue amongst the host organization and the contributors. Suppose Neutron Creative takes x% of the generated revenue from SingleLink. In that case, 100-x% of the pie is available to be distributed amongst paid contributors (staff that Neutron creative has contracted explicitly for the development of this software). This strategy would channel more passionate contributions because their work would earn them money in the short term, and their efforts will also help them achieve financial freedom in the long term. There are many details to sort out with this approach, and I would want to reach out to leaders in the open-source space to see whether or not this idea stands in the face of scrutinous questions.