@drewdevault the biggest red flag for me personally is venture capital. There are countless projects that started as affordable or open source and useful / fun and gradually closed down, became worse or got captured and are now sold at a high price.
Redis of course, Eagle & Fusion, the new 3d printer from Prusa comes to mind as well.
VC will find a way to get the money back if the project is successful. With or without the original team and their good intentions.