Open source software has evolved into a thriving, multifaceted ecosystem.

Open source encompasses operating systems and databases. Open source embodies both altruism and self-interest. And open source enables thriving businesses from WordPress blogs to hundred billion dollar cloud providers.

There is a large set of business models that can be built around a successful open source project. Some of these business models are more defensible than others. A company based around open source must make a deliberate set of tradeoffs around how their private company will relate to the public open source ecosystem.

Today’s episode is a discussion of open source business models with Karthik Ranganathan, Heather Meeker, and Matt Asay. Karthik is the CTO of YugaByte, an open source distributed SQL database. Heather Meeker is an open source licensing specialist and a founding partner of OSS Capital. Matt Asay is a longtime executive who has worked in several open source based companies including MongoDB–he has also written at length about open source. Full disclosure: YugaByte, where Karthik works, is a sponsor of SE Daily.

Sponsorship inquiries: [email protected]

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• FindCollabs is a place to find collaborators and build projects. We recently launched GitHub integrations. It’s easier than ever to find collaborators for your open source projects. And if you are looking for some people to start a project with, FindCollabs we have topic rooms that allow you to find other people who are interested in a particular technology, so that you can find people who are curious about React, or cryptocurrencies, or Kubernetes, or whatever you want to build with.
• Podsheets is an open source podcast hosting platform that we recently launched. We are building Podsheets with the learnings from Software Engineering Daily, and our goal is to be the best place to host and monetize your podcast. If you have been thinking about starting a podcast, check out podsheets.com.
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