Open Source Venture Fund Unveiled

I mentioned Simula Labs in the latest LinuxQuestions.org Podcast, but looking a little closer at the article, this is not exactly what I thought it was at first. From the article:

The business model Simula intends to set up with these planned ventures is very similar to that of Gluecode. Companies will employ the important engineers behind an open-source project and sell subscription services for support, training and more functional products based on the open-source code.
Simula executives will take an active role in company creation, acting as co-founders and providing expertise.
This means, they aren't looking to do what a traditional venture capital firm does (ie. give money to a team of entrepreneurs who have a good idea in the hopes they will eventually turn a humongous profit or get acquired), they are looking to start the companies themselves and hire members of the projects they decide to use. This invariably will mean less money for the people from the projects (as opposed to if they started the company) but also, of course, much less risk too. Not sure how I feel about this one quite yet, but it's a much different thing than I thought at first.
–jeremy