The CollabTalk Podcast Episode 123 | Building a Business on Open Source Foundations with Oren Eini
Apr 18, 2024
Oren Eini, Founder and CEO of RavenDB and a Developer Technologies MVP, delves into the nuances of building a business around open source. He discusses the essential role of community in open source ecosystems and shares personal anecdotes from his experience with RavenDB. The conversation also touches on the challenges of sustaining open source projects, such as funding and maintaining community trust. Oren advocates for practical coding experiences for junior developers while exploring innovative monetization strategies that balance community needs with business models.
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Origin of RavenDB
- Oren created RavenDB to fix recurring performance issues in ORMs that even smart developers struggled with.
- He was driven by a passion to solve this but was forced to build a whole database, which became his full-time commitment.
Open Source Sustainability Risks
- Open source projects face serious sustainability challenges, especially as critical vulnerabilities highlight risks of relying on a single maintainer.
- Most software today depends heavily on open source, but ongoing care and maintenance are often unpaid and unsustainable.
Maintainers Need Financial Support
- Open source contributors usually act out of love but sustaining maintainers financially is necessary for longevity.
- Maintaining requires tedious work that few want to do without proper support or incentives.