Why Does Open Source Matter to Your Company?

There are a lot of ways an open source project could contribute to your business. A non-exhaustive list:

  • Make it easier to get through security reviews, which helps enterprise penetration and government penetration

  • Allow you to build a better product by shortening the feedback loop and getting you better feedback from users

  • Accelerate development with outside code contributors

  • Facilitate a bottoms-up GTM motion, especially in enterprises

  • Generate leads

  • As an awareness / adoption play — helps people learn about your project and build buzz around the company

  • Because you think being open source is tablestakes

  • Because flexibility and interoperability are among your core differentiators

There’s more. But you should know what they are… especially right now, when funding is tight. If you don’t know precisely how open source contributes to your business bottom line (is it a growth engine or a way to get through security reviews?) you won’t be able to evaluate if the open source strategy is working, or to push levers to get more growth, for example.

There is more than one open source startup playbook. Know which one you’re trying to follow, because if you’re taking moves out of the wrong playbook it won’t work.

PS: I know if tough times out there for companies trying to fundraise. If you’re an open source founder and you’d like to see if there’s a better way to talk about your OS strategy, your positioning and/or your differentiation, I’m happy to chat for an hour free of charge to see if I can help. Interested? Send me an email.

Emily Omier