Stage 1: Plenty for users · Tool

Chromium fork pushing privacy and optional rewards—fewer trackers by default, but still a product with its own wallet, ads narrative, and ecosystem bets.

Privacy-marketed search with lighter tracking; still a business that must fund results and experiments over time.

Open-source Matrix client; messages federate across servers you control, end-to-end encryption is on by default, and no single company can revoke access to your conversations.

Open-source browser with privacy-forward defaults and no ad-tech parent; Mozilla’s funding model is fragile but the user-facing product still skews toward surplus over extraction.

Open-source publishing platform run by a nonprofit foundation; self-hostable for free, Ghost Pro managed hosting funds the foundation without taking a cut of creator revenue.

Paid, ad-free search funded by subscribers instead of advertisers—you are the customer, so the results are tuned for you.

Local-first note-taking app; files stay on your device in plain Markdown, sync and publish are optional paid add-ons, and the core product is free for personal use with no VC pressure.

Local LLM runner that lets you download and run open-weight models on your own hardware; no API calls, no usage billing, no data leaving your machine—VC-backed but FOSS by design.

End-to-end encrypted email from a Swiss nonprofit-aligned foundation; free tier with no ads or scanning, paid plans fund the service without monetising user data.

Real-time public transit app from Montreal: core trip planning stays free, funded by an optional subscription and agency partnerships instead of ads or data sales.