What started as a small project named ERPNext under the brand name Web Notes has transformed into a full-fledged service business known as Frappe. Over these 15 years, the ecosystem has expanded with more and more apps like Healthcare by Earthians, Frappe Cloud by Aditya Hase, POS Awesome by Yousef Restom, and many more. Today we have an entire Marketplace with over 70 amazing open-source Frappe apps listed on it.
But Frappe’s journey has not just been about the big umbrella and the products under it. The core has always been its community that believes in the magic of open source and the power of working together, contributing and helping each other.
Frappe has believed in its community and values strongly and is thus reflected in its journey. Empowering the community and working side by side to build Frappe apps has been number one priority. To encourage more contributions, Frappe supported the building of the India Compliance app and funded the project.
The beginning
Sagar Vora has been a community contributor for years and has made some amazing contributions in his time around Frappe. When he shared his idea to build the India Compliance app with Frappe,we were happy to help Sagar build it. While Frappe provided the funding to kickstart the project, the Frappe team including Nabin, Deepesh, Rohit helped them every step of the way and provided guidance whenever it was asked for. Sagar put in all the work with his team and developed the app the way he wished.
CEO at Resilient Tech
“Getting funded by Frappe was the best thing to happen to India Compliance. Not only did we get full autonomy to build the app the way we had envisioned it, but we also got fantastic support from the Frappe team throughout the journey. Whether we wanted design guidance, PR reviews, enterprise user testing or anything else, the Frappe team has always been there for us.
We're extremely grateful to avail this kind of backing from the creators themselves, and it inspires us to keep contributing and building bigger and better projects.”
Sagar and team published the ‘India Compliance App’ source code on GitHub and talked all about it at ERPNext Conference 2022. Seeing Sagar succeed this year, we were convinced that more contributors need to be encouraged and supported.
The aim has always been to have an ecosystem that builds amazing products and not just gives services. The community contributors are closely connected to the ecosystem and have the skills and knowledge of the next marketable Frappe app to build. But may lack the resources. To achieve their aim as well as ours, Frappe Incubator felt like the completing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Frappe Incubator will enable such projects to take wings and ensure excellent quality software is built using the Frappe Framework.
Why should you apply?
If you want to build open-source products using Frappe Framework and add them to the FC Marketplace list, this is the perfect space for you.
While you can work on a plan and develop the app the way you want to, we will provide you with the monetary support and the marketing/design guidance you need. We know the journey and would be delighted to share the learnings, pitfalls, resources, and eventually the success too.
Frappe Incubator plans to support 10 outstanding Frappe apps every year. By support we mean:
1. Monetary help 💰
To kickstart the project, a grant amount of INR 10L or USD 10K will be provided. The payment will be released based on the milestones planned.
2. Design support 📐
While you build the apps, we will guide you through the designs for the product pages and website pages as per your requirement.
3. Marketing/launch support 🫂
From shout-outs on our social media handles and mentions in newsletters to listing your project on Frappe Cloud Marketplace, we will spare no effort in launching your app.
How to go about the program?
1. Pitch 🤝
Once you share your proposal which includes details like community contributions and other project details, we will schedule a meeting. In this call, we will discuss the scope of the project proposed, the proof of concept shared, and the relevant milestone based payments for the project. To ensure the best projects are taken into the program, we would run a simple check on the applicant/team and the quality of previous community work with experience. If your project is approved by the team, we go ahead and start working together
2. Build 🏗️
Once the milestone-based payment terms are agreed upon, the payment would be processed as planned. While you build the project the way you want to, we will have your back with the design and marketing requirements. To ensure the timely success of the project, we will hold weekly calls. During these performance review calls you will be sharing the progress made.
3. Launch 🚀
As we move closer to the launch of the app, we will work out the marketing strategy for the launch and finally publish it on Frappe Cloud Marketplace.
We are excited to work with the Frappe community contributors and bring amazing apps to Frappe Cloud Marketplace together. If you have any questions, head over to our FAQ page and get all your questions answered.
