The Business of Open Source

Lars Kamp is the Co-Founder and CEO of Some Engineering, the makers of Resoto. In this episode, Lars describes what he’s learned from founding and working at multiple start-ups, as well as the main differentiators he’s experienced founding his first open-source startup. Lars describes his though process when it comes to selecting co-founders, and illustrates why it’s even more important to be discerning when selecting investors. Lars and I also discuss the advantages that open-source gives to founders who are focused on the distribution strategy for their product, and Lars reveals why he is a big proponent of having docs be a part of your product-led growth strategy. Throughout our conversation, Lars’ insights create a detailed picture of what second-time founders think about and how SaaS startup experience relates to open-source business strategy. Highlights:I introduce Lars, who is the CEO and Founder of Some Engineering (00:23)Lars describes what he does at Resoto and the user groups they work with (00:47)How a tweet by Jeff Barr inspired Lars and his co-founders to start working on Resoto (01:37)What it was like for Lars to start a company with co-founders he didn’t know very well (05:03)Why Lars went from working with closed-source SaaS companies to founding an open-source company (07:26)The main differences Lars has found between founding a SaaS startup and an open-source company (09:24)Lars describes the value he sees in investing in really good docs (10:44)Why Lars focuses more on distribution than product as a second-time founder (13:19)What third time founders think about and what they don’t (16:18)Lars’ advice to founders (18:40)Why Lars sees a big advantage in open-source business models, especially when it comes to distribution (20:09)The advice Lars would give himself if he could go back in time to the early days of Resoto(28:31)How to get in touch with Lars (32:23)Links:LarsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larskamp/Twitter: https://twitter.com/l1rsCompany: https://some.engineering/

Amanda “Robby” Robson is a Partner at Cowboy Ventures and the co-host of the Open Source Startup Podcast. In this episode, Robby shares insights on what she’s looking for in open-source founders to potentially invest in, including the importance of being able to manage both your community and your paid model simultaneously. Robby and I also discuss the importance and pitfalls of choosing a monetization strategy, as well as the dangers of having too many monetization models too soon. Throughout our conversation, Robby highlights the specific challenges that open-source founders face, and how she’s seen successful founders either avoid or overcome them. Highlights:I introduce Robby, who is a Partner at Cowboy Ventures and the co-host of the Open Source Startup Podcast (00:22)Robby gives some insight into how she evaluates startups from an investment perspective, and the peculiarities that go into evaluating an open-source startup (00:45)The nuances of evaluating the market opportunity for an open-source company (05:20)A common mistake Robby seeks early stage founders make when evaluating their market size (08:06)Robby shares what she’s learned about best practices for seed-stage startups who are looking to determine their monetization strategy (10:02)The dangers of having too many monetization models as an early stage startup (13:22)Traits that Robby feels are most valuable for an open-source founder to possess (14:48)Robby reveals the common traps that open-source founders fall into (17:13)Why Robby feels that successfully monetizing an open-source company has more to do with resources than timing (19:46)Robby’s thoughts on whether she would ever found an open-source company and how she would approach it (21:18)How Robby’s thoughts have changed on whether open source projects need to intentionally become a company or vice versa (23:44)What it’s like to advice against the open-source business model as a venture capitalist (29:10)Links:RobbyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-robson-7227685b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/amanda_robsCompany: https://www.cowboy.vc/

Daniel Izquierdo, Co-Founder and CEO at Bitergia, shares his fascinating journey from academia to the open-source realm. He discusses the unique challenges and metrics involved in measuring open-source communities, emphasizing the importance of data contextualization. Daniel highlights Bitergia's cooperative model, focusing on sustainable growth for employees and customers. He outlines strategies for community engagement through data, the balance of open-source principles with business, and how they navigated different business models before finding their niche.

Leszek Manicki, Engineering Manager at Wikimedia Germany, shares his experiences with getting more contributors to open-source projects while maintaining high security standards. He discusses the challenges and lessons learned from Wikimedia's efforts, and gives recommendations for other organizations. Leszek also highlights the importance of simple architecture and the benefits of outside contributors. He shares his hopes for positive socio-economic change through representing a non-profit organization at a commercialized event.

Brian Proffitt, Senior Manager of Community Outreach at Red Hat’s OSPO, discusses the value of events for lead generation, testing positioning and messaging, and community-building efforts. He shares insights on measuring ROI, optimizing lead gen events, and maximizing the impact of community events. Proffitt emphasizes the importance of gathering live feedback, refining communication based on customer reactions at in-person interactions, and collaborating between events teams and marketing departments.

Kim McMahon is the leader of Open Source Marketing & Community at Outshift by Cisco, which is Cisco’s emerging technologies and innovation unit. We recorded this episode at Open Source Summit EU, and talked about Kim’s strategies and tactics related to helping guide users to the correct edition of your product — ie, decide whether the open source option or a commercial option is best for them.Kim talked about the tricky balance open-source companies must strike between embracing open-source principles and driving revenue as a business, Kim’s tactics for community building and why it’s so important to be clear on why you want to build a community and the outcomes you expect from your investment in community building. Highlights:I introduce Kim, who is the leader of Open Source Marketing & Community at Outshift by Cisco, as she joins me at the Open Source Summit EU in Bilbao (00:25)Kim gives an overview of the talk she is giving at the Open Source Summit, which is on the topic of self-identifying when to shift to a managed version of open-source products (01:35)Kim and I discuss the different personas of open-source software users, and the role that product-led growth plays for open-source companies (03:07)Why Kim feels it’s critical to not treat your community as a sales database but rather to provide educational content to drive sales of open-source products (09:10)Kim and I discuss the challenges of marketing an open-source project and whether positioning truly falls under marketing (10:49)How Kim created a feedback loop on her team between sales, marketing, and product to ensure alignment when bringing open-source products to market (13:31)Kim walks through her thought process for community building from scratch (17:23)How Kim evaluates if a community-building strategy is working or not (24:34)What Kim learned about being a part of a community by being a member of a food co-op (28:09)Where to connect with Kim and learn more about her work (34:44)Links:KimLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmcmahonco/Twitter: https://twitter.com/kamcmahonCompany: https://eti.cisco.com/

Alexander Krüger is the Co-Founder and CEO of United Manufacturing Hub, an open-source company that develops software for the manufacturing industry. Throughout our conversation, Alexander describes the unusual path he took in going from a services-based consulting company to a product-led company. He also describes the opportunities and challenges of selling open-source software to an industry that has historically been slow to adopt new technology, as well as his choice to hone a go-to-market strategy before exploring fundraising. Highlights:I introduce Alexander, and he gives some background on his company United Manufacturing Hub (00:22)How Alexander decided to develop open-source software for manufacturers (01:39)Alexander describes the early days of launching United Manufacturing Hub and how he got his first customers (04:06)How long it took to go from a consulting firm to a product-based company (06:57)Why it’s important to Alexander that United Manufacturing Hub is an open-source company (08:20)Alexander describes the go-to-market strategy at United Manufacturing Hub and how it impacts their fundraising efforts  as well as their monetization model (11:06) Alexander describes an interesting mistake he made and what he learned from it (19:10)How different it is to sell open-source software in the manufacturing space versus other industries (21:31) The biggest challenges facing United Manufacturing Hub today (22:35)Alexander describes the pros and cons of going from a services company to a product company (25:44)Where people can go to learn more about United Manufacturing Hub and connect with Alexander (29:38)Links:AlexanderLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-krueger/Twitter:Company: https://www.umh.app/

Steven Renwick, CEO of Tilores, shares insights on their decision to forgo open sourcing their entity resolution system. Renwick explains how initial assumptions about open source shifted after evaluating business needs and investor feedback. He discusses the complexities of maintaining proprietary control while addressing customer transparency and security concerns. With valuable lessons on naming startups and navigating market positioning, this conversation highlights the nuanced choices faced by tech companies in today's landscape.

Philippe Humeau is the CEO and Co-Founder of CrowdSec, an open-source security company with a very unique business model that doesn’t fit the usual open source patterns. Philippe talked about how to focus on providing a fair exchange of value between maintainers / open source companies and users, and how to monetize a project that is providing value for free.Philippe also talked about why he thinks open-source founders are under more pressure to get their business model right at the start, tips on making the right hiring decisions, and how to communicate with the community in an effective and transparent way. I also liked Philippe’s cynicism: why he views open source as primarily a pragmatic choice for his business, given the type of company he wanted to build. Philippe also shares the logic behind his uncommon view that only making certain features available to paying customers isn’t a truly open-source business strategy. Highlights:I introduce Philippe, who gives some background on his career journey and what he does at CrowdSec (00:22)Philippe explains why it seems that security companies are underrepresented in the open-source space (03:19)The most common mistake Philippe sees when people start an open-source business (05:03)Why Philippe believes that open-source companies are under more pressure to get their business model right the first time (09:26)How Philippe came up with Crowdsec’s unique business model (16:15)The pushback that Philippe got when he presented his business model initially (19:33)Why Philippe views open source as a means to an end, and how that has affected his choices at CrowdSec (25:10)The most interesting mistake Philippe has made since starting CrowdSec (27:28)Why Philippe believes open source business models are more promising than closed source (31:19)The advice that Philippe would give to an open source founder who is looking to build a successful company (34:11)Why Philippe feels that having certain features behind a paywall is not a truly open-source business model (35:53)Where you can learn more about Philippe and connect with CrowdSec (40:11)Links:PhilippeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippehumeau/Twitter: https://twitter.com/philippe_humeauCompany: https://www.crowdsec.net/

Samuel Stroschein is the CEO and Founder of inlang, an open-source company that is looking to not only make localization easy for developers, but also to help companies achieve revenue growth through localization. I was particularly excited to talk to Samuel because, back in my way back past, I was a translator, so I’m always interested in solutions that exist to facilitate translation; but also because localizing software is a good example of the intersection between business problems and technical problems. Inlang also strikes me as a company that could see its primary market as developers, or could see its market as CMOs — because of the way localization is both a technical and business problem. And Samuel is clear about this: He says “What we're basically saying is if you want to make more money, you've got to localize.”Lastly, another thing that stuck out to me about our conversation was that, as we talked about Inlang’s future monetization strategy, Samuel said he thinks that it will likely be around services — which I hadn’t heard from anyone before. His reason: That the software will ultimately become commoditized.  Listen in to learn why localization is such a challenge for developers, what impact it has on revenue growth, and how Samuel took inlang from an open-source project to an open-source company.Highlights:Samuel introduces himself, describes his background and explains what inlang is solving for (00:37)Why localization is such a challenge and how it led Samuel to create inlang (01:21)The circumstances that pushed Samuel to turn inlang into an open-source project (04:30)Why Samuel decided to take inlang from an open-source project to an open-source company (05:43)Samuel explains how localization is a growth opportunity, and how that impacts inlang’s market (09:00)The way Samuel and his team are thinking about monetizing inlang (13:22)Why being an open-source company is important to Samuel (15:15)The collaboration that open-source brings and why it’s so valuable to Samuel (19:00)How financial stability, problem-solving, and the nature of building software all contribute to the success of open source in tech (26:06)Samuel explains how he views mistakes as stepping stones to positive outcomes (28:41)The learnings that Samuel has gathered when hiring for inlang (30:13)How you can connect with Samuel and learn more about inlang (31:22)Links:SamuelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelstroscheinTwitter: https://twitter.com/samuelstrosCompany: https://inlang.com/