The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors SaaStr 505: The Future of AI, Open Source, and Enterprise SaaS: Where It’s All Going with Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi
Dec 8, 2021
Ali Ghodsi, CEO and Co-Founder of Databricks, and Nithya Ruff, Head of Open Source at Comcast, dive into the transformative power of open source in technology. They discuss how open source fosters innovation and attracts top engineering talent while emphasizing its role in the shift from on-premise to SaaS. The conversation highlights the growing importance of multi-cloud strategies and the challenges startups face in commercializing open source effectively, all while maintaining community engagement.
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Early Databricks Community Building
- Databricks initially prioritized community building around Spark.
- They focused on developer relationships, evangelizing the technology to startups and companies.
Open Source Moat
- Open source creates a "moat" by fostering a large developer community.
- Millions of developers using the project create a network effect that makes the company "unbeatable."
Target Developers First
- Target developers early, as they become your first adopters and evangelists.
- Developers already familiar with your open-source project can accelerate enterprise adoption.