Should I pursue an IPO, or am I satisfied with over 10,000 GitHub Stars?

Brother, you've hit the nail on the head with that question. It's something almost every successful open-source project author ponders late at night. These two things, while both sound incredibly impressive, are fundamentally different.

To put it this way, it's like asking: "Should I become a renowned three-Michelin-star chef, or build a global fast-food empire?"

Getting Tens of Thousands of Stars on GitHub: Becoming a "Three-Michelin-Star Chef"

What does getting tens of thousands of stars mean?

• Your craftsmanship receives top-tier recognition. In the developer community, you're a big shot. Your code, your design philosophy, are stamped with approval by thousands of peers, exclaiming "Brilliant!"
• You gain immense personal reputation and influence. Offers from major tech companies will come knocking, tech conferences will invite you to speak, and when you write an article or post an update, a crowd will gather to read and like it.
• You have a loyal community of "patrons." They love your "dishes" (projects), help you "refine the recipe" (by submitting PRs), help you "shout out" (promote it), and even "tip" you (sponsor).

This is a tremendous success in terms of technology and prestige. You rely on pure technical prowess. You might still be working alone or with a small team, enjoying relative freedom, and focusing on perfecting your beloved creation. Financially, you might live comfortably through donations, consulting, or selling premium support services, but you're not yet an "entrepreneur"; you are a top-tier "craftsman" or "artist."

Being content with this is perfectly fine and something to be immensely proud of. Most people will never reach this level in their lifetime.

Choosing to Go Public (IPO): Building a "Global Fast-Food Empire"

What is an IPO? Going public has less to do with how well you write code.

• This is a business game, no longer just about technology. Your goal shifts from "writing the most elegant code" to "producing the most attractive financial reports." You're no longer thinking about how to implement the next feature, but where the revenue growth for the next quarter will come from.
• You're no longer the sole decision-maker. You need to build a massive company with sales, marketing, legal, finance, HR... You're responsible to investors, to shareholders, and for the livelihoods of hundreds, even thousands, of employees. You transform from a "chef" into a "Group CEO."
• Your project (product) must be capable of generating substantial revenue. GitHub Stars only prove that people use your creation, but IPO investors look at whether you can convert these "users" into "paying customers," and this scale needs to be large enough to support a market capitalization of billions or even tens of billions.
• You will lose a lot of freedom. Your time will be filled with various meetings, reports, and roadshows. You might not touch a single line of code for a long time. The open-source project you nurtured will become a company "asset," and its direction will be dictated by the company's business strategy.

This is a perilous path in business and wealth. If successful, you might achieve social mobility and financial freedom. But the pressure, risks, and sacrifices along the way are unimaginable to ordinary people. Countless companies have fallen by the wayside on the road to IPO.

So, How Should You Choose?

Don't view this as an either/or choice. You can see it as a matter of life stage and personal aspirations.

Ask yourself a few questions:

1. What do you truly enjoy? Is it the thrill of conquering a technical challenge late at night, or the satisfaction of leading a team to conquer new ground, watching user numbers and revenue curves rise together?
2. What kind of life do you want? Do you want the life of a respected, relatively free "master" who controls their own time, or the life of a "business leader" that is challenging, high-risk, high-reward, but potentially beyond your control?
3. Does your project have commercial potential? Many great open-source projects are not suitable for directly becoming a big business. Is your project something that can evolve into an enterprise-grade product, or is it more like a convenient "Swiss Army knife" for everyone?

A common path is:

First, strive to become that "Michelin-star chef" (getting tens of thousands of stars). In this process, you'll naturally discover whether your "dish" has the potential to become a chain. Investors might come sniffing around, presenting you with a blueprint for a "fast-food empire." At that point, you can decide whether to accept the challenge and embark on that entirely different path.

To summarize my view:

• Tens of thousands of stars is a huge achievement, an accomplishment in itself. Enjoy this honor; it can already bring you a very good life and career development.
• An IPO is the beginning of a different game, not the pinnacle of a technical career. It suits those with a burning ambition to build a business empire and who are not afraid of the harsh realities of the business world.

So, don't overthink it. First, enjoy your glory as a "chef." As for whether to open a "chain," that's a matter for the next step, and by then, your mindset and resources will be completely different from now. The path is forged by walking it, not planned out from the very beginning.