Open Source Startups Need Strategy, not Passion

Last Friday I wrote about why a founder who’s not an open source enthusiast or open source purist might evaluate the pros and cons of an open source startup and decide that approach makes sense for their company. Today, I want to encourage those of you who are open source purists to learn something from this approach.

One of the things that stuck with me from State of Open Con in London was when Guy Podjarny, during the entrepreneurship panel, said that if a founder comes to him (in his capacity as an investor) and says they’re going to build an open source company ‘because it’s the right thing to do,’ or ‘because I’m an open source person,’ he doesn’t invest. I’m guessing he wouldn’t have mentioned it if he hadn’t had this kind of conversation before. I know I’ve heard people express a similar sentiment.

In fact, I’ve said myself that one of the reasons a founder should consider building an open source company is if that is the kind of company they want to build. I still think that’s true. Just as you should build a software infrastructure company, or a data storage company or a privacy-centered company, because you’re passionate about the problem and the space.

It’s just that it’s not enough to be passionate. You have to have a business plan, too. The same goes for your company’s open-source-ness. It’s good to be passionate about open source! But you should also understand exactly how your open source project is going to benefit your company and be able to connect the dots from your investment in your open source project to business metrics like revenue.

TLDR: Being passionate about open source is great, but it’s not sufficient reason to build an open source company. No matter how passionate you are, you need to have concrete business reasons for building an open source start-up instead of a closed-source one.