Open Source Underdogs

Joseph Jacks is the Founder and Organizer of the Open Core Summit (OCS), the world’s first commercial open source software (COSS) event. Joseph is also the Founder and GP of OSS Capital, a venture fund that invests exclusively in early-stage Commercial Open-Source Software (COSS) companies. In this episode, Joseph discusses the exciting origins of the...

Corey Scobie is the Senior Vice President of Product and Engineering at Chef, maintainers of the popular open source configuration management tool. In this episode, Corey discusses the “4 freedoms of open source software,” and various challenges associated with building a business around open source software. Interested in learning more about Chef? We encourage you...

Paul Dix is the Founder and CTO of InfluxData, creator of the popular open source time series database, InfluxDB. In this episode, Paul discusses finding balance between commercial and open source offerings. Transcript Intro Michael Schwartz: Welcome back! You’re listening to Open Source Underdogs. I’m your host, Mike Schwartz, and this week, we’re honored to...

John Newton is the Founder and CTO of Alfresco Software, an open source digital business platform specializing in ECM and BPM software. In this episode, John discusses community building, the “open core” business model, and his perspective on the atmosphere surrounding pure play open source businesses in the market today. Transcript Intro Michael Schwartz: Welcome...

Syste “Sid” Sijbrandij is the Co-founder and CEO of GitLab, a DevOps lifecycle tool. In this episode, Syste discusses product pricing and their approach to hiring a globally-dispersed team. Transcript Introduction Michael Schwartz: Welcome back, and thanks for checking into Open Source Underdogs. We have an epic interview this week with Sid Sijbrandij, Co-Founder of...

Richard Wyles is the Co-founder and CEO of Totara Learning, an open source learning management system. In this episode, Richard discusses how Totara monetizes access to its open source software. For further reading on Richard’s perspective regarding open source business, we highly suggest checking out his article: We don’t make software for free, we make...

Emil Eifrem is the Co-founder and CEO of Neo4j, a category-defining graph database platform powering applications for artificial intelligence, fraud detection, real-time recommendations, and master data. In this episode, Emil identifies key questions entrepreneurs must ask in the emerging era of public cloud software. Transcript Intro Michael Schwartz: Welcome back, Underdogs. This week, we’re lucky...

Sam Tuke is the CEO of pHpList, an email marketing system powered by open source software. In this episode, Sam discusses the merits of a SaaS business model versus open core. Transcript Intro Michael Schwartz: Howdy, Underdogs. Welcome to episode 23. Finding all the successful open source software companies is hard work. You can’t Google...

Emil Eifrem is the Co-Founder and CEO of Neo4j, a category-defining graph database platform powering applications for artificial intelligence, fraud detection, real-time recommendations, and master data. In this episode, Emil identifies key questions entrepreneurs must ask in the emerging era of public cloud software. Transcript coming soon!

Luke Kanies is the Founder of Puppet, an open source tool for software configuration management. In this episode, Luke discusses the fundamental challenges of starting, building and running an open source software business. Transcript Michael Schwartz: Welcome back to Open Source Underdogs, the podcast where we interview the founders of pure play open source software...