First, it's all open-source, so I can take it and run it. Second, you provide a hosted service, and by virtue of being the author, you're the default SaaS host. You charge a premium over AWS fees for self-hosting, which works out to:
1. Enough to sustain you.
2. Less than the cost of doing dev-ops myself (AWS fees + engineer).
3. A small premium over potential cut-rate competitors.
You offer value-added premium services too. Whether that's economically viable, I don't know.
1. I'm unlikely to adopt something proprietary for this sort of use. Lock-in is bad, but it's especially with a startup which can disappear tomorrow or pivot who is holding my key data. Open-source means if you disappear, I'm alive. I don't trust you, and open-source mostly means I don't need to.
2. With open-source, pricing which is more than the cost of AWS + engineer makes no sense. I'd rather host myself. However, the labor costs means that AWS + engineer gives a lot of potential profit margin for you. I'd much rather not run servers myself.
3. A cut-rate competitor will have similar per-customer cost structure as you, but you'll have somewhat higher fixed costs. For me, paying a little bit more for the reliability of going with the most competent vendor is an obvious choice (which you would be, by virtue of having written it). I wouldn't consider a cut-rate vendor unless the savings was very significant.
4. Not in my current job, but in past jobs, I'd gladly pay for service and support on top of that. A lot of things are cheaper for you to do (or explain) as the author / expert, than for my guys to figure out themselves.
For this to work requires a certain economy-of-scale. That requires deep VC pockets to get to profitability, or a good beachhead (e.g. a single big customer). There are many single big customers, but I have no idea how you'd build that connection. Most are in oddball industries, and not companies you'd think of.
For example, a few years back, I interacted with a major military contractor who specializes in manufacturing, and has no competence in technology. They did many billions in business, and had just paid a few million for a semi-incompetent tech consulting firm as an acqui-hire to try to build basic tech expertise. Outsourcing everything to you would have been a far better decision for them (and for many companies like them) if they could find you and vet you, and vice-versa (probably with a strategic investment as well).
They were very good at what they did, but what they did was very much not tech or software.
First, it's all open-source, so I can take it and run it. Second, you provide a hosted service, and by virtue of being the author, you're the default SaaS host. You charge a premium over AWS fees for self-hosting, which works out to:
1. Enough to sustain you.
2. Less than the cost of doing dev-ops myself (AWS fees + engineer).
3. A small premium over potential cut-rate competitors.
You offer value-added premium services too. Whether that's economically viable, I don't know.