The Business of Open Source

Emily Omier
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The Business of Open Source

Whether you're a founder of an open source startup, an open source maintainer or just an open source enthusiast, join host Emily Omier as she talks to the people who work at the intersection of open source and business, from startup founders to leaders of open source giants and all the people who help open source startups grow.

  1. 17 GIỜ TRƯỚC

    KubeCon Special Episode: Managing the Tension between Product and Project with Bobby DeSimone

    Who pays for the future of infrastructure? In this special episode, I spoke to Bobby DeSimone, founder and CEO of Pomerium, about how he feels like infrastructure and security both have to be open source — but then, what does that mean about the future of the financial support for infrastructure and security?  We talked about:  The importance for customers, especially early customers, of being able to do code audits early in the buying cycle — and Bobby thought that just a BSL license would not have been enough.We talked tension between project and product 😳 my favorite topic. If you’re curious, I did a talk at All Things Open on the subject, one that was sadly not recorded :( but you can reach out if you want the slides. How Pomerium manages that tension, both internally and externally. There are open source purists as well as cutthroat capitalists. Bobby describes it as making a bet on the middle.  If managing product-project tension is something you’re struggling with, reach out, you might want to work with me.  And if you want more conversations about the unique aspects of open source businesses, you should come to Open Source Founders Summit this May. Join the mailing list to find out as soon as tickets are available.

    19 phút

  2. 6 NGÀY TRƯỚC

    KubeCon NA Special Episode: The Connection Between Community Engagement and Revenue with Mark Fussell

    This week on The Business of Open Source, I spoke with Mark Fussell, CEO and co-founder of Diagrid and co-creator of Dapr, in a special episode recorded on-site at KubeCon NA in Salt Lake City.  We kicked off with a discussion of what’s different about running an open source company versus a proprietary software company, and Mark said that a big part of it is that you have to nurture the community.  But what does that actually mean? I pushed back, and happily Mark was able to go into more specifics about what he means. We also talked about:  Why, and how, to build a contributor ladder. —> worth noting here that not all companies even want to encourage outside contributions, so it was interesting to hear Mark go into this dynamic. Dapr is now a graduated project at the CNCF, and Mark talked about what changed for Dapr as a result of getting that seal of approval… as well as what changed for Diagrid. And since Diagrid is the primary maintainer of the project, this probably means Diagrid will end up spending more engineering resources on the project. The constraints that come from having your open source project hosted by the CNCF — or any other open source foundation, for that matter. The delicate balance between the engineering resources you need to put into your open source project and the engineering resources you put into your commercial product. Even though Dapr has many (around 4,000) outside contributors, it takes a huge amount of effort (and effort = money) to manage that community, and Mark talked frankly about the investment it requires to make that happen. What percentage of the open source users even know that Diagrid exists? 😳 Mark guesses that it’s 5%, and he talks about what he’s tried doing at Diagrid to make that percentage go up. Is 5% good or bad? We talked about how it’s hard to know, actually, how Dapr/Diagrid compares on that.  ### Are you struggling to figure out how your investment in open source translates to revenue? Do you want to figure how to increase the percentage of users who even know the commercial product exists? You might want to work with me.

    23 phút

  3. 26 THG 11

    ATO Special Episode on Product Strategy with Elias Voelker

    In this last special episode of The Business of Open Source recorded at All Things Open, I spoke with Elias Voelker, VP North America for CheckMK. We talked a lot about product strategy; when CheckMK decided that they needed a clear strategy for deciding which feature goes in the open source project and which goes in the commercial version. Elias finished up the conversation by circling back on this issue: As an open source company, if you don't have a big enough difference between the value customers get from project and what they get from the commercial relationship... you won't survive.  Since Elias works in sales, we also talked about sales for open source companies. He said one of the most important questions in the context of open source is “why now?” Since many customers have been using the open source project successfully for years, this question is really important for uncovering what’s changed and why they are ready to buy at the moment.  We also talked about some cultural differences between selling in North America and selling in Germany, since while Elias is German (as is CheckMK), he leads sales in North America and therefore has some advice for European companies moving into the North American market.  ### If you’re struggling to figure out your product strategy as an open source company, you might want to consider working with me. I help open source companies figure out how to differentiated themselves in the market, how to differentiate the product from the project and how to take advantage of the opportunities specific to being to a open source company.

    18 phút

  4. 20 THG 11

    Applying the lessons from Docker with Solomon Hykes

    This week on The Business of Open Source, I have the first episode I recorded on-site at KubeCon Salt Lake City (and the only full-length episode), with Solomon Hykes, CEO and co-founder of Dagger, and co-founder of Docker. One thing Solomon mentions briefly but that is very important is that there are limits to what can be learned from Docker’s story, simply because the situation was so unique. Docker experienced explosive growth, at least some of which was due to having the right technology at the right time. This kind of explosive growth is very rare, though, and it brought it’s own set of challenges. The point being that while most companies will struggle to get enough adoption, Docker struggled to monetize effectively but got so many chances to try again just because it had a massive community.  The hypothesis — or actually, lack thereof — behind creating the original Docker open source project. How having a massive community does help — but also doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to build a financially sustainable companyWhen you build a massively successful technology or standard, you’ll attract competition — and in the case of Docker, the competitors were savvy companies who’d won the previous cloud wars and ultimately were quicker to figure out how to monetize Docker containers than Docker itselfWhat Solomon is doing differently at Dagger compared to Docker, one of which is thinking about monetization much soonerThe open source movement was founded on such explicitly anti-commercial principles that companies building in the space would often not be intellectually honest about the fact that they were building both a software to give away for free as well as a business that needed revenue. Docker tried too hard to please everyone, including those who felt that open source should be pure and non-commercial — at Dagger, they’re much more transparent and upfront about the fact that it’s a company with commercial ambitions. Solomon also talked about the difference between components and product, and how designing products requires control, including the ability to just say no without explaining yourself.  ### It was fascinating to hear Solomon talk about the lack of intellectual honesty around who pays for the development and maintenance of a lot of open source projects, because that precise topic was the focus of two panels I moderated at KubeCon, one during the main conference and one during CloudNative StartupFest.  If you’re struggling to articulate how your product and project are different from each other (and others in the ecosystem) and why someone should pay you, you might want to work with me. Reach out!

    39 phút

  5. 13 THG 11

    ATO Special Episode with Nithya Ruff

    In this special episode of The Business of Open Source, I spoke with Nithya Ruff, director of Amazon’s Open Source Program Office (often referred to as an OSPO). We started out talking a little about what exactly an OSPO is and what they do in companies — something I’m guess not everyone understands.  It boils down to managing the company’s open source strategy — something that is relevant to pretty much any company that writes software of any kind. There are a lot of components to an open source strategy, and there are different ‘models’ for an open source strategy, depending not just on the company’s size, but also whether or not open source is core to what the company sells. Nithya previously led the OSPO at Comcast, and talked a bit about the difference between running an OSPO for the a company like Comcast and a place like AWS, because their products are different.  And why do open source strategies matter for startups? Even if you’re not an open source company, if you can’t prove you’re in compliance with open source licenses for projects you depend on, or if there are security concerns related to your open source use, it can sabotage acquisitions.  By the way, helping startups figure out their open source strategy is what I do as a consultant. If you’re figuring out how to balance your open source project and your product strategy, and how to manage the risks and opportunities associated with open source projects, you might want to work with me.

    16 phút

  6. 12 THG 11

    ATO special episode with Peter Farkas

    In this special episode recorded at All Things Open, I talk with Peter Farkas, CEO and co-founder of FerretDB. We talked about about MongoDB and the license change fiasco and why Peter wanted to build an open source company and never considered building a non-open source company.  The biggest 🤯 in this episode was about enforcing what it means to be open source; in particular, FerretDB positions itself as a truly open source alternative to MongoDB, and has received threatening letters from MongoDB as a result. How do you enforce it when a company claims to be open source but does not use an OSI-approved license? How well do the average users actually understand the license implications, and if a big company says they have an open source license even though it’s source-available, not open source, how much will people understand the difference?  If you want another perspective on the enforcement of advertising around open source licenses, listen to the episode I recorded with Stefano Maffulli, also at All Things Open.

    16 phút

  7. 6 THG 11

    Selling Peace of Mind with Bhaskar from YottaDB

    This week’s full-length episode is with Bhaskar, founder of YottaDB. This episode was recorded on-site at All Things Open last week, and we covered a wide range of topics. Including: How the open source ecosystem, and the open source business ecosystem, has changed over the past 30+ years.Who can responsibly self-support an open source database, and who really needs to have someone to call if things go wrong. The spectrum of professionalism among open source developers How YottaDB started out as a project developed inside a larger company that was in financial services; and Bhaskar decided to spin it out as it’s own company.The challenge articulating the value of support contracts, especially for software that is reliable. Bhaskar says he is selling peace of mind more than anything else; and he works with customers to avoid incidents — because ultimately avoiding an incident is a better outcome for everyone than a quick recovery from an incident. How to convince people that they are actually not as good at managing open source databases as they think they are. We also talked about conference strategies: according to Bhaskar, the way he’s decided which conferences to exhibit at is a series of trial and error — and by the way, this is something I’ve heard from many people. Yes, you have to think about where your customers are, not where your friends are, but sometimes you don’t know ahead of time which conferences are going to have the best ROI.  I’m working with YottaDB right now on how to differentiate themselves in the crowded database market — and we talk about that process a bit right now. If you’re having trouble standing out in a crowded market, you might want to work with me.

    29 phút

  8. 5 THG 11

    ATO Special Episode with Tatiana Krupenya of DBeaver

    This special episode of The Business of Open Source with Tatiana Krupenya, CEO of DBeaver, was recorded on site at All Things Open 2024.  It’s a short conversation, so we addressed one main question: What is the difference between running an open source company versus as proprietary software company? Tatiana says the difference is big — and it’s complicated.  The bottom line: Your OSS can be your main competitor, and your customers have to really see the value in your commercial offering if you want to make sales. ## If you aren't sure how to talk to your potential customers are about why they should use your commercial offering, you might want to work with me.

    13 phút
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Giới Thiệu

Whether you're a founder of an open source startup, an open source maintainer or just an open source enthusiast, join host Emily Omier as she talks to the people who work at the intersection of open source and business, from startup founders to leaders of open source giants and all the people who help open source startups grow.

Thông Tin

  • Nhà sáng tạo
    Emily Omier
  • Năm hoạt động
    2020 - 2024
  • Tập
    240
  • Xếp hạng
    Thô tục
  • Bản quyền
    © Emily Omier Consulting
  • Trang web chương trình
    The Business of Open Source

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