The Business of Open Source The Human Cost of Increasing Freemium Users with Peer Richelsen
Jan 17, 2024
34:22
Peer Richelsen is the Co-founder of Cal.com, an open-source calendar scheduling tool. This week, Peer and I discuss his personal experience with needing a customizable scheduling tool, the big leap from taking donations to running a profitable business, and the thought process behind seeking VC funding. Peer also talks about the major advantage of starting with only a paid version of the product in order to build a small community of super users. Lastly, I pick Peer’s brain about how he feels being constantly compared to non open-source scheduling products.
Highlights:
- Intro (00:00)
- I introduce Peer Richelsen, the Co-founder of Cal.com, and he discusses the company and its calendar scheduling tool (00:59)
- Does Peer think about Cal.com as a dev tool (2:09)
- What is Cal.com’s business model (03:57)
- The lack of customizability in the scheduling tool marketplace (06:15)
- Switching from accepting donations to selling a profitable product (09:48)
- Launching without a free version (12:50)
- The human cost of freemium usage (16:20)
- The decision to raise VC funds (17:41)
- What business value being open source brings to the company (20:48)
- How Cal.com positions itself in the market (24:13)
- Interesting mistakes Peer has made as an entrepreneur (28:22)
- How “free” is the software (30:57)
- Peer’s parting words (32:27)
- Where listeners can connect with Peer and learn more about Cal.com (33:04)
Links:
Peer
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peer-richelsen-221233138/
- Twitter: @peer_rich
- Company: https://cal.com/