Open-source project as startup?
mahmud: In terms of profitability, a simulation software would be hard to monetize as "software as service"; anybody technically inclined to want to do simulations will probably have a lab unix flavors, parallel libraries and other goodies to just download your tarball and run it themselves.Simulation is not exactly sales automation, data capture, billing or inventory.Your best bet is to reach out to federal safety and security agency, and sell them a heavily customized version of the tool (usually the problem du jour; few years ago was terrorism, now it's home foreclosure, job loses, etc.) you will be prepared to have a few PhDs on board to sell it to the governments and you might need to reach out to your local governments and municipalities.