Should SaaS be the default business model for an Open Source company?

In the run-up to Open Source Founders Summit, I’m going to be interviewing speakers and attendes on a dedicated podcast. Today is the first episode, and I chatted with Pierre Burgy, CEO of Strapi.

He argued that a SaaS model should be the default business model for most open source companies today, and also talked about his experience starting with an on-prem enterprise model for Strapi and how things have changed since they’ve launched a cloud product.

I am not sure I agree with Pierre that a SaaS model is the one you should choose by default, unless there are compelling reasons to build an on-prem enterprise version. We talked about this a bit in the episode, and don’t disagree that there are compelling reasons to not go to market with a SaaS — I think the way our opinions differ is that I think the carve-outs are more common. Really privacy / security focused organizations are often a very good fit for open source companies (think governments / defense organizations / regulated industries), and also that often open source companies operate in markets where their main competitors are SaaS companies, so the ability to self-host can be an important differentiator.

But Pierre and I 100% agree on one thing: The company you build if you go the SaaS route is completely different from the company you build if you go the enterprise on-prem route, in pretty much every way.

Anyway, have a listen to the episode and, if you want to have more of these conversations, buy a ticket and come to Open Source Founders Summit!