Playing Devil's advocate/with all due respect...

Isn't it FREE to just upload a theme/plugin to the WP Directory? No matter how "complicated" the code is, something big like JetPack to something as small as the earth hour plugin.

If there is a local WP Community to the author's location, couldn't the author talk about plugin via a meetup meeting?

What about just giving it away to testers? I tested about 12 plugins in 2013 & 2014. I got the full version of the plugins. It was fun testing things. I gave the authors feedback. Just like WordPress 4.2 is in beta testing right now and many people downloaded it and testing it.

Good Luck to Justin and Emil.