Open Source Startup Podcast E185: The Challenges with Monetizing Open Source with the Creator of Rich + Textual
Nov 4, 2025
In this enlightening discussion, Will McGugan, creator of Rich and Textual, shares his journey in open source and building developer tools. He reveals the challenges of monetizing open-source projects, emphasizing the need to prioritize killer products over technical perfection. Will discusses the importance of the terminal as a fast interface and introduces Toad, a promising AI front end aimed at enhancing terminal workflows. With key lessons on hiring, simplifying operations, and early monetization, he offers invaluable insights for aspiring tech entrepreneurs.
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Terminal UX Can Become Massively Popular
- Rich transformed terminal output with modern features like tables, syntax highlighting, and progress bars, gaining massive adoption in Python.
- Will measured success by community traction, citing nearly 4 billion downloads as proof of impact.
Sabbatical Project Evolved Into A Startup
- Will began Textualize from intellectual curiosity, building an application library on top of Rich during a planned sabbatical.
- Conversations with others in the Python community turned that experiment into talks of a commercial spinout.
Terminal Ubiquity Dilutes Direct Monetization
- Terminals are ubiquitous, cross-platform, and preserve developer flow because they are fast and responsive.
- That ubiquity dilutes value, making it hard to create a direct commercial product solely around terminal libraries.