Comment by philipisik

Hey, Philip here, one of the co-founders of überdosis and Tiptap. I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this, so I’ll keep it short.

While there’s no right or wrong, my experience is that starting as a solo freelancer to cover your bills while building your product usually works better than running an agency. Even with just 3 or 4 people, you’ll spend a ton of time on sales and project management, which can quickly bury your own product work.

We nearly killed our company at überdosis when transitioning from an agency to a product company. On paper, funneling agency revenue into product development sounded perfect. In practice, juggling client deadlines (with real pressure) and the growing needs of Tiptap (maintenance, support, new features) was brutal.

Open source is also powerful. It helps you build a community and attract leads, but it demands a lot of maintenance and support. It’s worth it if you have a clear strategy.

My personal advice: keep your operation as lean as possible, handle a few selective freelance projects to stay afloat, and pour every remaining resource into your product. Once it gains enough traction, you can let go of client work without risking your financial stability. Good luck :-)