Fallthrough Building An Open Source Maintenance Company
Jun 2, 2025
Filippo Valsorda, the founder of Geomys and former Go security team lead, teams up with Daniel McCarney, a system security engineer, to delve into the world of open source maintenance. They discuss Geomys' mission to provide stable incomes for maintainers, the challenges in managing projects, and the need for sustainable practices. Personal anecdotes blend with insights on preventing burnout, navigating priorities, and the future of Go and Rust ecosystems. The duo emphasizes community engagement and the importance of maintaining motivation in the ever-evolving tech landscape.
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Founding Geomys Anecdote
- Filippo started Go maintainership funded at Google and saw open source projects suffer as companies capped investments in popular projects.
- He quit Google to prove open source maintenance can be professional and financially sustainable by founding Geomys.
Demand for Professional Open Source Maintenance
- Companies want professionally maintained dependencies and will pay for it if offered as a stable service.
- Presenting as a professional vendor with clear invoices simplifies funding open source maintainership.
Value of Prompt Code Reviews
- Spend adequate time on code review to help new contributors grow and keep them engaged.
- Prompt responses improve user experience and cultivate a thriving open source community.