Open source location redux
In Open source location redux Matt wonders if he should add more sales infrastructure in Europe or less.
(Having said that, Alfresco has realized an immediate gain from adding sales/business development people in Germany and France. Suddenly, many downloads that had been inclined toward a free beer discovered the value of paying for freedom. So maybe the real solution to the "problem" is to invest more sales infrastructure in Europe, rather than less? Not sure....)
I think the obvious answer is to in invest smarter
As an open source company , Alfresco luckily was one of the firsts to realise that the only way to conquer the European market is to be present there locally.
RedHat and MySQL learned this slowly, it took years before customers could match a face to RedHat and even longer to to feel local presence. A European customer does not buy easily from some sales office in the UK if it's only a sales office, they want to talk to someone. Timezones and language differences make it even more difficult. Lots of people want to work with someone in their timezone who speaks their language and their culture (Sometimes even their dialect, as from experience I know that a Dutch salesguy isn't likely to sell much in Belgium)
As for Open Source startups it's impossible to do such an investment so they need to find good partners for local support. Being based in the USA is easy.. you have a vast amount of customers living in the same country speaking the same language.
But here's your next question ..
"How should an open source company choose it's partners ? , based on revenue from reselling products or based on finding soulmates with skills to support and contribute to their products ?"