What is the best metrics for open-source startups
A large and engaged developer community can be instrumental in building a successful open-source startups. Thanks to Github, it is possible to assess the popularity of repositories (by stars &forks). One the most interesting developments in that field is ROSS Index: the top open-source startups by their star growth. https://runacap.com/ross-index/
What other battle-tested metrics for open-source startups can be valuable?
I am curious if there is way to identify the numbers of companies leveraging open source project. That can a very good metric to understand the ease of use and the OSS potential impact.
The other metric, I am keen is know if developers in these companies giving back to these OSS. Apache software are very good example for this.
What about issues, pull requests and contributions from developers outside the org? So I'm thinking in terms of any kind of engagement, since stars and forks are a single point in time but you can have many stars and forks on a dead project too.
Their ability to attract talented developers to work for them. So maybe tracking the engineers they are hiring on Linkedin.