In Depth

Winning with open and closed source products | Neha Narkhede (Co-founder at Confluent and Oscilar)


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Neha Narkhede is a co-founder at Confluent, a data streaming software that raised at a $9.1b valuation in 2021. Neha later co-founded Oscilar, a no-code platform that helps companies detect and manage fraud. Before building these two companies, Neha was a Principal Software Engineer at LinkedIn where she co-created Apache Kafka. Neha is ranked #50 on Forbes’ list of “America’s Richest Self-Made Women 2023” with an estimated net worth of $520m.

In today’s episode we discuss:

  • The origins of Confluent, Kafka, and Oscilar
  • How to become a successful second-time founder
  • Advice for monetizing open source product
  • Neha’s unique GTM strategies
  • How Confluent ran two businesses within one company
  • Neha’s path to founder market fit
  • Referenced:

    • Apache Kafka: https://kafka.apache.org/
    • Confluent: https://www.confluent.io/
    • Confluent Cloud: https://www.confluent.io/confluent-cloud/
    • Jay Kreps, co-founder at Confluent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaykreps/
    • Jun Rao, co-founder at Confluent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/junrao/
    • MongoDB: https://www.mongodb.com/
    • Oscilar: https://oscilar.com/
    • Where to find Neha:

      • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehanarkhede/
      • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/nehanarkhede
      • Website: https://www.nehanarkhede.com/
      • Where to find Brett:

        • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
        • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
        • Where to find First Round Capital:

          • Website: https://firstround.com/
          • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
          • Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
          • Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
          • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
          • Timestamps:

            (00:00) Introduction

            (02:14)The origin story of Kafka

            (05:24) Co-creating Kafka at LinkedIn

            (07:31) Why open sourcing Kafka was a masterstroke

            (11:04) The unique nature of Confluent's Zero to One phase

            (16:35) Building for a specific customer early on

            (18:42) Inside Confluent’s successful launch

            (20:12) Establishing Confluent as an enterprise company

            (22:00) The role of developer evangelism in Confluent’s success

            (23:49) Using developer evangelism in category creation

            (26:41) Navigating early co-founder dynamics

            (30:06) Leveraging complementary founder skills

            (31:56) Advice for future founders

            (32:45) Building Confluent with monetization in mind

            (34:38) Monetizing open source products

            (36:05) GTM for subscription Saas versus consumption SaaS

            (39:48) The importance of founder-led GTM sales

            (40:58) Neha’s order of operations for GTM sales

            (42:33) When to build out outbound sales

            (45:28) Adding SaaS to a software business

            (49:48) Choosing what to license and what to open source

            (53:32) How Confluent’s co-founders decided on SaaS offering

            (57:58) Neha’s journey as a second-time founder

            (59:48) Building Oscilar differently to Confluent

            (64:15) Going from speculation to product realization

            (70:00) Solving problems people are willing to pay for

            (72:07) Neha’s “proactive research sprint” tactic

            (73:48) How Neha has applied this tactic

            ...more
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