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The Bootstrapped Founder

363: Ben Rometsch — From Side Projects to Industry Giants

Dec 18, 2024
Ben Rometsch, founder of Flagsmith, discusses his journey of building a successful bootstrapped SaaS company in feature flag management. He dives into the importance of open-source contributions, sharing insights on the Open Feature project and its impact on software development standards. Ben reflects on the challenges of balancing sustainable growth without VC pressures and navigating enterprise sales. He also draws fascinating parallels between Brexit and business growth, highlighting mental adaptability and the significance of focusing on core functionalities.
53:28

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Feature flags enhance software deployment by allowing teams to manage release visibility, thereby reducing risks and improving flexibility.
  • The Open Feature initiative aims to establish open standards for feature flagging, simplifying workflows and promoting interoperability across development tools.

Deep dives

Understanding Feature Flags and their Benefits

Feature flags are a powerful tool that allows engineering teams to manage software releases by controlling who sees features and when. This approach decouples the deployment of code from the public release of new features, which enhances flexibility and reduces risks associated with software launches. Historically, the integration of code and feature releases was tightly linked, making updates cumbersome and potentially problematic. Today, as the landscape matures, feature flags are becoming increasingly recognized as a best practice, although their adoption remains lower than expected among engineering teams.

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