Monetizing Open Source, Founder to Founder Chat

Many of you are likely heading off on vacation (or area already on vacation now). But if you’re still interested in thinking about open source monetization, check out this great video of a conversation between Sid Sijbrandi, CEO and co-founder of GitLab and Michael Shanks, founder of low-code platform Budibase. If you’ve ever wished you could just pick the brains of an open source startup’s founder, definitely check it out.

I think there’s a couple particularly interesting points, around the difference in profile/characteristics between the users of different types of paid products. There’s also some interesting points around licensing and how many core distributions to have.

I also like the point about how companies shouldn’t tell people to use their product because it’s open source, but rather because it is simply better than the alternatives.

I won’t be sending a newsletter next week. I hope everyone has a festive holiday season and a good end to 2021 and good start to 2022.