The Business of Open Source

Matt Butcher is no stranger to the ways of ethical philosophy. With a Ph.D. in Religion and Computer Science, he enjoys philosophical conversations of ethical dilemmas. Butcher passionately debates wild theories and paradoxical situations against those not afraid to question reality in pursuit of knowledge.In this episode of The Business of Open Source, Hear how Butcher discusses ethics in the open source world, the grey areas in being an ethical company, and the moral nature of work/life balance. Butcher also details how some of the greatest philosophical minds shaped his own view of ethics and the pursuit of "that middle road."Highlights:Ethics and Computer Science vs. AI (1:30)Ph.D. in religion and… computer science? (3:05)Ethical claims in open source (4:52)Is it ethical to build a company like yours? (8:50)Interacting with people to see the value (13:45)Understanding balancing creativity with reality(17:52)What does it mean to build an ethical company(19:42)"Complex is such an interesting choice here" (24:43)Finding that middle road (28:29)Common unethical source practices (29:30)Have you changed your ethic since becoming a CEO? (31:50)Links:MattLinkedInTwitterFermyon

Dawn Foster, Director of Open Source Community Strategy at VMware, is a champion of community strategy and development. A doctor of Philosophy, Foster is well-versed in the understanding of collaboration and leverages her mountain of knowledge to fight for the health of maintainers in open-source projects.In this episode of The Business of Open Source, Dawn Foster joins me from the Open Source Summit North America to tackle community strategy and contribution growth methods. Foster also touches on the differences between open contributions and what project leads should do to help grow their maintainers.Highlights:Why is it essential to have a contributor growth strategy? (1:46)Loss of control (3:10)How to be proactive for project growth (4:24)Proactive communication to foster a relationship (7:15)Non-code contributions are just as crucial as maintainers (9:47)Is it a mistake to have no contributor growth strategy (12:20)One tactic when being a single maintainer (13:33)Replacing your maintainers (16:02)Don't get arrested (18:10)Improving your skills in maintaining  (19:17)Navigating contributions to a project (21:29)Increasing the number of contributions per person (24:13)Example of a good growth strategy (27:07)Links:Dawn LinkedInTwitterVMware

Bart Farrell is a content creator and community leader in the public speaking world. Based in Spain, he has developed a massively popular platform through podcasting and consulting as a nontechnical person in a technical space.In this episode, Farrell breaks down the ins and outs of public speaking. He also discusses the art form of speaking offline rather than online, what to expect when talking to an audience, and what it takes to deliver the gift of gab. Farrell also goes into his struggles in becoming a public speaker and his favorite influence on his craft—all this and more in this episode of The Business of Open Source.Highlights:The Fear of public speaking (2:00)Not a life or death situation (5:10)Be comfortable while speaking(8:40)You only get one start (9:57)A I D A (11:22)Online is not offline (15:03)How to get into public speaking (17:00)Basic building blocks (19:00)How to improve in public speaking (23:35)A favorite public speaker (26:55)Links:BartLinkedInTwitterbartfarrell.com

Ivar Østhus, The CTO and creator of Unleashed, is a revolutionary in shipping feature management tools and rollouts for companies worldwide. Through hardships, Østhus came into his own in the open source world by relieving the pressure on developers bringing new creations to light in their projects.On this episode of The Business of Open Source, Hear how Østhus discusses the inception of Unleashed and the struggles he overcame in the early stages. He also talks about being a European company in the tech industry and why he prefers to be called a "Creator" rather than a Founder.Highlights:Creator but not a Founder(1:48)Why Unleash? (2:33)Why open source (6:20)Taking the plunge with unleash (9:38)Being a European company(15:25)Early mistakes in Unleash (17:40)Long-term support open source user(19:40)The biggest challenge (25:20)Links:IvarLinkedInTwitterUnleash

Josh Koenig, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Pantheon, is a WebOps aficionado focused on creating first-class platforms and delivering results. Recognized as a Top 25 Software Products Executive by The Software Report, it is no wonder he is passionate about his ability to discuss and understand the developer experience while fostering relationships with users.On this episode of the Business of Open Source, Koenig discusses the art of fostering opposing community relations and his ideals of the developer experience. He also talks about the niche that is WebOps and his journey of creating Pantheon.Highlights:What is Pantheon? (0:55)Pantheon's role in communities (3:50)Teamwork makes the dream work (7:20)Challenges with a no-control work model (9:00)Balancing control and elevation in open source (11:10)Squarespace, but not really (13:10)Mistakes in building Pantheon(15:06)Connecting with a community (16:55)The difference between WordPress and Drupal (19:30)Community involvement (21:35)Pleasant surprises (23:40)Top challenge (25:40)Last remarks (28:50)Links:JoshLinkedInTwitterCompanyDrupalWordPress

Daniel Loreto, the founder of Jetpack.io, is a massive believer in transforming how engineers scale their backend for cloud-based platforms. Deeply rooted in the tech industry, Loretto takes great pride in building tools to large usage scales and utilizing them to attend to the needs of his users and community.On this episode of the Business of Open Source, Hear about the inner workings of jetpack.io and its challenges in its history. Also, listen to Loreto's tips for success for a startup, his navigation of open source and proprietary coding, and why Loreto is not an open source purist.Highlights:The history of jetpack.io (3:31)Pursuing the open source model (4:53)Got to move fast as a startup (6:38)Re-integrating feedback into your work (7:43)Why an open source project (8:48)Open source code vs. proprietary code (10:55)Unexpected challenges ( 12:15)Not an open-source purist (14:54)Challenges in selling open source products (16:47)Developing guidelines for jetpack.io (17:42)Success does not mean success (20:01)Lessons from building a company (23:13)

"Fueling a culture of openness in innovation and research." That slogan is well known to Abigail Cabunoc Mayes, a leader in GitHub's open-source maintainer program. With a background in open science, Mayes felt right at home when jumping to open source and mentoring many developers at the Cloud-based Hosting service.On this episode of The Business of Open Source, listen to Mayes speak on sustainability and resilience in building a platform for developers and what makes a robust and sustainable environment. Mayes also talks about financial stability and models in the open source world and what it truly means to break from a main backer and build on your own.Highlights:Supporting "maintainers" (3:02)Succession planning (3:38)Being resilient in sustainability (5:40)Building financially without company backing (6:29)GitHub experimentation (10:42)Strategies for critical projects that are lower in the stack (11:55)Technical sustainability (13:47)Hypothetical financial models (19:33)Links:AbigailLinkedInTwitterGitHub

Akriti Dokania, a heavyweight in the venture capital business, is a partner at Ridge Ventures. With a background in computer sciences and building a B2B company from the ground up, it is no wonder Dokania is an expert in the complexities of developing software and understanding the lifecycle of a start-up.On this week's episodes of the Business of Open Source, Dokania shows her wealth of knowledge in investing in open source start-ups. She also explains what founders should look for in an investor and the struggles of monetization for an open source start-up. Lastly, Dokania gives the secrets to working towards a revenue model and scaling a start-up to a fully fleshed-out company.Highlights:Open source vs. non-open source companies(from an investor's eye) (2:07)The go to market for open source (4:03)Disadvantages of an open source start-up (5:29)Too deep into open source to monetize (7:53)Red flags a founder should look out for in an investor (14:24)Common mistakes for open source companies looking to monetize (16:24)Unique business strategies in open source (19:24)Links:Akriti LinkedInTwitterCompany

Stefan Avram, Co-Founder and Head of Growth at WunderGraph, is taking the open source world by storm. With his company specializing in full stack and workflows through API composition, it is no wonder he has fostered a vast community of developers around WunderGraph.On today's episode, Avram delves into the story and creation of WunderGraph. He also recounts how he organized a massive discord community to foster healthy feedback for growth. Lastly, Avram speaks on the hardships of building a start-up company and what it takes to flourish—all this and more on this episode of The Business of Open Source.Highlights:Taking a leap of faith (3:40)Engineer to Handler of Marketing (5:04)Navigating becoming a Co-Founder (7:03)The primary benefit of open source in WunderGraph (11:44)Building a community space for feedback (14:23)Top 3 mistakes in start-ups (18:25)Advice to your past self (22:38)Links:StefanLinkedInTwitterWunderGraph

Emre Baran is a man on a mission to simplify authorization protocols for software developers. With his company Cerbos, Baran has put in years of dedication to easy authorization and helping build the authorization databases of over one hundred EU companies.In this episode of The Business of Open Source, Emre Baran goes through the history of his company Cerbos. He also talks about telemetry challenges, monetization strategies, and the challenges that made him who he is today. Find out more in this episode!Highlights:The right time to take the plunge (4:48)Monetization strategy (6:21)The most interesting mistake (9:31)Overcoming telemetry challenges (12:10)The importance of open source for Cerbos (15:48)Selling shoes to shoemakers (17:47)Helping people through Cerbos (25:11)Links:EmreLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emrebaran/Twitter: @emreCompany: Cerbos.dev