The Business of Open Source

I’m joined by Matt Leray, co-founder and CTO Speedscale, an API testing product that applies “real world” stresses to “collect and replay traffic without scripting, simulate load and chaos, and measure performance.” With a history steeped in various aspects of tech, and with time spent in the startup space and cloud native space, Matt brings to the table some encompassing perspectives.Matt’s career has carried him from monitoring satallite earth stations, to fiber optics, and more recently into cloud native. Matt began in startups, then went to larger companies, then back to startups, which he offers some insight on. Matt has a lot of wisdom to share on entrepreneurship, how the startup space has changed, and how to best navigate that. Matt discusses how Speedscale works as an “traffic replay” platform for APIs and his role there both technically and as a co-founder. Check out the conversation for a list of startup how-tos!Highlights:Introduction to Matt and Speedscale (00:00)When Matt decided to become an entrepreneur (02:10)Deciding to jump into startups (06:00)What has stayed the same, and what has changed for Matt’s entrepreneurship (10:00)Being selective (14:00)Nailing down the timing and finding the right moment for Speedscale (20:26)Matt’s most controversial view about the cloud native startup space (26:25)Matt’s final thoughts (30:18)Links:MattLinkedInTwitterCompany

Kit Merker, co-founder and COO at Nobl9, a software reliability platform. Through software-defined SLO’s Nobl9 helps developers, DevOps and reliability engineers deliver more reliable features faster. Kit has had a storied career in tech, and as a result is a great source of wisdom and know how. Especially in regard to navigating the various sides of any given business. In this episode, Kit offers up some anecdotes from his long history in the software space, and how he transitioned from engieenering to the “business side” of things. He tears down some stereotypical misrepresentations of both sides, and expands on how empathy helps alleviate many of these issues. Kit discusses his partnership experiences, work in M&A, building a “coalition” in open space, and more! Tune in for our conversation for Kit’s emphatic and valuable insight.Highlights:Introduction to Kit and Nobl9 (00:00)Why Kit decided to transition to the “business side” (03:55)Kit’s reflections on partnerships (06:30)The importance of building a coalition around Kubernetes (10:00)Alleviating developer burnout (18:15)Nobl9 and how it came to be and how they work (20:15)The challenges of being a consultant first (27:00)Recognizing the margins (33:30)Links:KitLinkedInTwitterNobl9

Michael Guarino, founder of Plural, a unified platform for open-source management platform entirely hosted on Kubernetes which creates a fully functional ecosystem around deploying Airflow. Though working in Kubernetes and more, Plural can be used across a wide spectrum of open source projects. Many of which Plural is specifically targeting to make their product appealing to users.In this episode, Michael talks about how Plural works within the open-source space, and how in using it with Airflow they’ve helped to elminate much of the work needed there. Michael lays out how using Plural makes using Airflow easier on the user, versus taking a DYI approach. Michael discusses avoiding lock-in, the various open source tools they use, working through the early days in COVID,  the history of building Plural, and more!Highlights:Introduction to Michael and Plural (00:00)The open source projects that work with Plural and its advantages (01:30)How using Plural is easier than DYI and avoiding lock-in (04:06)How Plural came to be (08:26)The unexpected difficulties, and the unexpected ease (15:06)Plural and open-source (18:40)Navigating potential roadblocks to community building (23:09)Monetization (26:20)Michael’s thoughts on the future of open-source (28:11)Links:MichaelLinkedInPlural

Today’s guest is Michael Tanenbaum, CEO and co-founder of Mycelial, an edge data platform for distributed local first applications that is built with developers in mind. Myceclial takes the accomplishments of the cloud native movement to bring data that exists outside the data center into the hands of the developers themselves. With a focus on data from the “edge”, which Michael defines as anything from a smart thermostat, to a 5g tower, applications, and more.In this episode Michael lays out how he and his partners captilized on the oppurtunity of recent innovations in cloud native, and in turn commercialize the need to “get applications out of the data center to work harmoniously with applications in the data center.” He and his co-founders are striving to build complex edge native applications and local native data. Michael breaks down the “three pillars” of edge native to provide some crucial definitions, how he identified the needs Mycelial addresses, the diverse range of obstacles they’ve already surmounted, and more! Highlights:An introduction to Michael and Mycelial (00:00)When Michael recognized the need for a product like Mycelial (02:32)The “Three Pillars” of edge native (05:11)Disovering an “unsexy” problem and deciding to solve it (09:00)The unforseen difficulties of Mycelial (15:15)The unforseen easy parts of Mycelial (20:32)Some important takaways from the founding experience (26:45)Links:MichaelTwitterMycelial

Lyon Wong, CEO and co-founder of Blameless, a complete reliability engineering platform that brings together AI-driven incident resolution, blameless retrospectives, SLOs/Error Budgets, and reliability insights reports and dashboards that enable businesses to optimize reliability and innovation. Lyon has a history steeped in founding and investing in start ups and company building, which has lead a heavy involvement in Blameless where he can apply the many lessons learned.In this episode, Lyon breaks down his background and how it influenced his decision to become a founder at Blameless. Over the course of his career he noticed trends in other companies where teams were prevented from learning opportunities because they were worried about catching the blame. As a result Lyon identified the need in the market for a way to synthesize the cultural tensions around blame. Lyon’s insight on building trust, partnership, and communications on learning are deep and worthwhile. Check out the full conversation!Highlights:An introduction to Lyon and Blameless (00:00)Jumping back into being a founder after time as a VC (2:28)Creating a blameless culture (05:50)What Lyon does different as a founder and investor and his early experiences (09:50)The importance of credibility (16:10)The “core skillsets” needed in start ups and some crucial beliefs (18:55)The larger and smaller pictures, and balancing short and long term (25:34)Lyon’s parting words and wisdom for founders (32:51)

Haseeb Budhani, co-founder and CEO of Rafay Systems, a Kubernetes operations company joins the conversation. What a Kubernetes operation company is as companies use Kubernetes across their organizations they need the right automation, security, visibility and more. These are needs that come from multiple teams working across multiple applications, and it creates a lot of work. This is where Rafay Systems is looking to cover down.Haseeb introduces us to the work at Rafay systems, and his own discovery of the problems they want to address. Haseeb discusses the history of Rafay’s establishment, and how they are striving to create a fluid and robust workflow engine. He reflects on how his previous experience has reinforced the lessons he brought to Rafay, how to connect to the customers, and more! Check out the conversation!Highlights:An introduction to Haseeb and Rafay Systems (00:00)Lessons learned at other companies and staying the course (6:12)Successfully connecting with the customers needs (12:29)The lessons learned already at Rafay and some helpful advice (15:36)Where the Kubernete’s ecosystem is headed (25:22)Links:HaseebLinkedInTwitterCompany

Andrew Rynhard, Founder and CTO of Sidero Labs, joins the show today to discuss his work and Sidero Labs. Sidero is a Kubernetes lifecycle management reimagined from the operating system to entire stack. Andrew has origins steeped deeply in open source, and it has become a central focus to his entire ethos and drive.Andrew breaks down his own trajectory that lead to Sidero and the passion he leveled for the endevour from the onset. Andrew’s passion for open source served as the impetus founding the company, and he shares his love for open source and the pathways that it created for him through his career. Andrew shares Sidero Lab’s successful initial funding, the shift to it being his full-time job, and their meteoric rise.Highlights:An introduction to Andrew and Sidero Labs (00:00)The early days of Sidero Labs and their current position (03:10)The moment Sidero became Andrew’s primary focus and the companies journey (08:05)Sidero’s focus on distributed systems (17:48)The challenges of a project that is far down the stack (22:15)Some final thoughts from Andrew (31:35)Links:AndrewLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewrynhard/Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewrynhard?lang=enCompany:https://www.siderolabs.com

Today’s episode is a round table with Morgan McClean, Ben Sigelman, and Alolita Sharma, the maintainers of Open Telemetry. Open Telemetry is a high-quality, ubiquitous, and portable telemetry to enable effective observability with a mission to make telemetry as approachable and applicable as possible. Open Telemetry’s values center on compatibility, reliability, resilience, and performance. With these objectives in hand, our maintainers are making waves in open space.In this episode Morgan, Ben, and Alolita breakdown their individaul involvement in Open Telemetry. They discuss the paths each of them took to end up there, and the varied skillsets the bring to the project. Open Telemetry’s vision and mission is unique in its clarity and precision, and they share some insight as to why. Open Telemetry’s collaboration allows the space for their mission statement to shine through, and as a project before a product, give to the open source community. Check out the conversation for Morgan, Ben and Alolita’s excellent perspectives!Highlights:Introductions to our three maintainers and their invovlement in Open Telemetry (00:26)Why and how Open Telemetry has such an explicitly clear mission and vision (03:44)Making it clear what Open Telemetry is not (08:20)Thinking as a project, not product (10:45)The pros and cons of working with “frenemies” (17:55)Why Open Telemetry has been successful (27:22)Closing comments on Open Telemetry (32:35)Links:Open TelemetryTwitter: @opentelemetry, Ben (@el_bhs), Alolita (@alolita)Company: https://opentelemetry.io

Tyler Jewell, Managing Director at Dell Technologies Capital, joins me for a deep conversation about the intersection of capital and technology. As a managing director, Tyler harnesses a focus on developer lead companies and the push he makes for those companies when it comes to funding. For Dell Technologies Capital, the focus is on providing the financial support and backing for the market that is developing around the developers themselves.Tyler breaks down how he honed his focus on backing developers. He refers to the rise of software developers as a “talent class” where he could cultivate investments and partnerships. Tyler shares his parameters for how he categorizes companies and software into four “buckets,” which facilitates the focus he lends to these companies. From identification, to the intersection with capital, check out this conversation for Tyler’s in-depth and exacting definitions.Highlights:Introduction to Tyler and Dell Technologies Capital (00:00)Defining what it means to be “developer lead.” (02:15)Tyler defines his differences between DevTools and DevPlatforms (4:50)Who is a developer? What is the difference between developer lead companies and the rest? (08:20)Tyler provides insight for those who want to found a developer centric company (14:35)Tyler’s predictions for the coming year, and some advice (21:45Links:TylerLinkedInTwitterDell Technologies Capital

Rob Hirschfeld, CEO of and co-founder of RakN, joins the show to discuss their work in the world of automation. Notably so, automation of data centers using infrastructure code principles to create “infrastructure pipelines.” Rob’s honest and open story provides a great example of how to identify areas that need a product, to developing the product itself.In this episode, Rob gives us the history of RakN from the earlier inception when he was at Dell, to where they stand today. Rob shares some insight on the challenges of DevOps when it comes to dealing with the various “silos” that organizations have created. He reflects on their transition away from Dell, and how they realized they needed to be table to talk to customers about how they used their products.Highlights:Introduction to Rob and RakN, a focus on automation, and their origins (00:00)The differences between building and shipping instead of just building on site (04:40)The transition away from Dell and RakN’s early growing pains (08:20) The hardest parts of the technology/commercial balance (14:45)Some critical lessons from the transition (23:25)Reflecting on the early days and lessons (30:25) Links:RobTwitterLinkedIn