We never hear about the bootstrapped open source companies

How many open source companies are there out there?

People often ask this when I tell them what kind of work I do. Like so many things, at first I thought I knew the answer, and as I learned more I realized I had no idea. That’s because there are some excellent resources out there that count venture-backed open source companies (like this one, from OSS Capital, though I think it hasn’t been updated since March).

But this completely ignores bootstrapped open source companies. Some bootstrapped companies get big enough that they can’t be ignored anymore — I’m thinking about Percona, for example. I suspect it’s not just Percona’s size, though, but also that Percona is a database company, that make it a company that’s hard to ignore.

Open source companies that are bootstrapped and are a) smallish and b) don’t sell to developers are essentially invisible in the conversation about open source business development. Yet they exist, and they are profitable and employ loads of people (in aggregate, I’m sure they employ tens of thousands of people, but it’s obviously hard to know since we don’t know how many exist).

These companies have something to contribute to the conversation, even if they are what the venture world derisively calls ‘lifestyle businesses.’ They have often survived for years. They are either profitable or at least breaking even. They grow, though maybe not 10x every year. And they are able to balance maintaining and sustaining and growing their open source software while putting food on a lot of people’s tables.

Do you know a founder of an open source company (bootstrapped or venture-backed) who is struggling with positioning? I’d love an intro.