Open Source is About the Masses with Fabien Pinckaers of Odoo

Today I’m talking with Fabian Pinckaers, CEO and Founder of Odoo, a suite of business apps to manage all of a business’s activities, about his passion for open source and knowing how and when to pivot as a start-up.

In this episode, Fabien and I discuss the highs and lows of running a start-up as he details his history with Odoo. From its inception as a service offering for auction houses to its current state as an open core software vendor with a cloud offering, Odoo has challenged its founder to continue innovating the product and pivoting the business model to find success. Listen in to discover the lessons Fabien has learned in his journey as a founder and CEO.

Highlights:

  • Fabien introduces himself and explains how his passion for open source led him to start Odoo (0:49)

  • Why Fabien agrees with other founders that open source is a development model, not a business model (5:09)

  • How to keep going forward when your business is struggling. (9:53)

  • Why Fabien believes that “product is everything,” and how that philosophy relates to his passion for open source (10:51)

  • “Open source is about the masses” (14:06)

  • Odoo’s three pivots (19:47)

  • How pivoting to open core has allowed Odoo to contribute even more (24:17)

Links:

Fabien

Chris Hill