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The Business of Open Source
From Open-Source Side Project to Enterprise SaaS Solution with Ben Rometsch
Dec 13, 2023
Ben Rometsch, CEO of Flagsmith, shares his journey of building an open-source feature flagging project and turning it into a full-time SaaS company. He discusses challenges with pricing and monetizing, importance of licensing, and how caring about developer experience sets Flagsmith apart. They also talk about when revenue started to take off, the frustrations of pricing, and the benefits of being an open-source business.
39:51
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Quick takeaways
- Flagsmith's open-source nature contributed to building trust, getting valuable feedback, and fostering an inclusive community around the project.
- Flagsmith's shift in target customers led to a change in pricing, offering on-premise deployments and customization options for large enterprise organizations.
Deep dives
The Genesis of Flagsmith
In this podcast episode, Ben Romesch, CEO and founder of Flagsmith, shares the story behind the creation of his open-source feature flagging and remote config platform. Initially, Ben and his team wanted to introduce feature flags into their software agency's development methodology, but found a lack of open-source platforms available. This led them to create their own platform, as they couldn't find an open-source equivalent to tools like LaunchDarkly. The idea started as a side project, with spare time from the agency being dedicated to building out a basic version. The team decided to make the project open-source from the start and released it on GitHub, gaining traction and acquiring paid customers slowly. Over time, they discovered that their ideal target customers were large enterprise organizations with data sensitivity concerns, as they appreciated the ability to run the platform on-premise. The project continued to grow thanks to the contributions and collaboration of users who wanted to add features or fix bugs. Overall, Flagsmith's open-source nature contributed to building trust, getting valuable feedback, and fostering an inclusive community around the project.
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