Open Source Startup Podcast

Jonathan Schneider, Co-Founder & CEO of Moderne, dives into the intricate world of software refactoring. He highlights the critical need for maintenance to avoid security vulnerabilities and discusses the hurdles faced in the Java ecosystem. The conversation uncovers the challenge of managing code complexity, especially with the rise of generative AI. Jonathan also shares insights from Moderne's journey, including the importance of collaboration in the open-source community and the startup's evolution since 2020.

In this discussion, James Perkins, Co-Founder & CEO of Unkey, dives into the complexities of the API management landscape. He shares insights from their journey, emphasizing the importance of simplicity in enhancing developer experience. James highlights their focus on user feedback to shape features, discusses their scalable pricing model, and reflects on the challenges of transitioning from developer to CEO. With a commitment to open-source principles, he reveals Unkey's plans for growth while maintaining an accessible product.

Lukas Gentele, Co-Founder & CEO of Loft, discusses his platform engineering company, which focuses on Kubernetes virtualization to promote efficiency in high-usage environments. He shares insights on the evolution of VCluster and how it's shaping developer autonomy. Lukas highlights the importance of a strong feedback loop in an open-source ecosystem and stresses that open-source founders should embrace commercialization early on. He also unveils innovative approaches to cost reduction, like the Sleep Mode feature, enhancing the business case for virtual Kubernetes clusters.

Aliaksandr Valialkin and Roman Khavronenko, Co-Founders of VictoriaMetrics, share their journey from a software company to launching an innovative open source monitoring platform. They discuss the limitations of Prometheus and how ClickHouse inspired their scalable solution. The duo highlights the importance of simplicity, the advantages of bootstrapping, and their unique take on the Open Core model. Crucial advice is offered for aspiring open source founders, emphasizing team dynamics and user-focused problem solving over profit-driven goals.

Lars Kamp, co-founder and CEO of Fix, discusses the crucial intersection of development and security in cloud environments. He emphasizes involving CISOs early in the process to foster collaboration. The conversation highlights the necessity of a seamless, self-service experience for developers to encourage adoption of security tools. Lars also shares insights on transparent pricing strategies and the challenges of navigating the open-source landscape in a competitive market, offering valuable advice for founders.

Tim Delisle and Nico Joseph, founders of FiveOneFour, discuss bringing software engineering practices to data teams, market education, open source requirements, democratizing data access, and monetization strategies. Topics include evolving data schemas, separate APIs, fast iteration, user feedback, and the benefits of embracing open source practices.

Tomer Shiran is Founder of Dremio, the data lakehouse platform for self-service analytics and AI based on open source frameworks Apache Arrow, which the Dremio team created, and Apache Iceberg. Dremio has raised over $400M from investors including Norwest, Redpoint, Adams Street, Sapphire, Insight, and Lightspeed. They are currently valued at $2B. In this episode, we dig into Tomer's journey from MapR to Dremio, his initial vision for making the data stack more accessible, their first breakthrough with Apache Arrow and a columnar-format approach, focusing first on project-market fit before monetization, adding support for Apache Iceberg, how they're using AI to improve user experiences & more!

Ari Zilka, former CTO of Hortonworks and current CEO of mydecisive.ai, discusses the shift towards OpenTelemetry in large enterprises, the cost benefits of open source, and the importance of building a community before monetizing. He emphasizes the value of 'ops' in 'devops' for revenue and shares insights on strategy merging, hypothesis testing, and ecosystem building in company growth.

Mark Huang, Co-Founder of Gradient AI, discusses enterprise readiness for LLM-backed applications, open sourcing their Llama-3 finetune model, focus on healthcare and finance, and navigating GenAI infra space.

Umur Cubukcu, Co-Founder of Ubicloud, discusses building an open-source cloud alternative to AWS, emphasizing cost savings, simplicity, and freedom. They explore navigating the AWS ecosystem, delivering personalized services, and overcoming challenges in building a compound product.