E07: Monetizing Open Source w/ Wes McKinney

Pete chats with Wes McKinney, the inspiration behind many popular OSS data & data science tools like pandas, Apache Arrow, Ibis and others. We learn from Wes' experience in starting businesses around OSS tooling, and hear his thoughts on monetization, ecosystem building and challenges in starting his companies as an engineer-founder.

Wes is currently the co-founder & CTO of Voltron Data, which is building accelerated computing technologies powered by Apache Arrow.

Highlights:
[0:50]: Wes’ thoughts on monetizing open source software (OSS)
[3:10]: Potential ways of turning a library/utility into a business
[4:53]: Example of DuckDB Labs + Motherduck partnership
[7:05]: Advice that Wes would give other engineer-founders
[11:00]: Working with design partners & early customers
[13:02]: Building relationships across the Arrow ecosystem
[14:45]: What’s the true value of OSS from Wes’ perspective
[17:03]: Wes’ advice on personal brand building as an engineer

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Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025.

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