This week on The Business of Open Source I spoke with Marco Möller, CEO and co-founder of Pionix. This was a fabulous conversation about a company that’s in a very different market from the usual open source company: They make firmware for EV charging stations, and are behind the EVerest project, which is part of LF Energy.

So who is part of the community open source projects that are so connected to hardware? Here’s what we talked about.

There aren’t many hobbyists in the community — but there are a lot of people who have professional interests in the electric vehicle industry. EVerest doesn’t focus on what Marco considers “personal” or “hobbiest” features. This was a great discussion about how understanding the target market, including for the project, leads to different feature decisions.
How does Pionix money? It doesn’t yet :), but we talked about various plans the company has for monetization in the future.
How being involved with the LF Energy has helped build trust, which is very important for a company that is only going to be selling to large companies and governments.
Why Marco thinks that the huge vision he has for creating firmware for EV charging stations is only possible with open source, and how he makes sure that he’s able to fund the large mission without hurting the community.
The balancing act with getting investors who specialize in the energy market but who don’t have experience with open source

Struggling with positioning your project or figuring out how to best monetize? You might want to work with me.

941: A 2010 Interview with William Gibson