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Wildest dreams of making profit on open source ...

Irina Nazarova
February 28, 2024

Wildest dreams of making profit on open source at DeveloperWeek 2024

Irina Nazarova

February 28, 2024
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  1. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 17 TECH IS FOR HUMANS Technology can

    be awe-inspiring, but it will only change lives when turned into a product. Project vs. product
  2. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 18 CUSTOMERS VS. CONTRIBUTORS Recognize your customers

    as a new audience, not equal to contributors, and how it a ff ects: – product – documentation (guides, wizards) – marketing
  3. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 19 YOUR AUDIENCE – people whom you

    know and have empathy for – people who know you and recognize you as an expert
  4. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 21 HOME ASSIGNMENT – Create a calendar

    link with fi xed # slots per week and send to your potential or current users to learn from them. Don’t pitch, listen. Learn their pains. Let them surprise you. Take notes. – Use their words to describe your value proposition to the next user, but also on website, repo, documentation, marketing, etc. – Build for them, and not only for yourself.
  5. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 23 OPPORTUNITY IS RISK Entrepreneurs are professional

    risk takers. You learn it by doing. Embrace it and enjoy it!
  6. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 26 LEAN STARTUP Plant a bunch of

    “seeds” to collect a bunch of learnings.
  7. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 27 BUILD AN MVP MVP is a

    tool to validate a product hypothesis quickly without an upfront investment. 👩🎤 🍏 👩🔬
  8. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 28 BUILD AN MVP MVP is a

    tool to validate a product hypothesis quickly without an upfront investment. 👩🎤 🍏 👩🔬 〔👩🎤 🍏 👩🔬〕
  9. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 👩🎤 🍏 👩🔬 20 people you know

    Figma prototype Meet them for co ff ee and give them your laptop Readers of a subreddit Landing built with Framer Record sessions with PostHog, track signups Attendees of a meetup Presentation Track signups and questions Emails of CTOs of speci fi c companies GitHub page Track signups and responses EXAMPLES 29
  10. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 33 VC FOR RISK SHARING Most VCs

    at early stage are looking for: – Team, ideally repeat founders – Big market: a small chance to build a billion-revenue business – Velocity: quick iterations, growth and buzz (OSS metrics) – Revenue potential: you tried selling and it worked
  11. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 34 1 BN REVENUE? 2023 revenue: MongoDB

    $1.3 bn GitHub $1 bn est. Elastic $310 mn Gitlab $150 mn
  12. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 37 WEEKLY IS TOO SLOW What are

    you learning this week? 1. Marketing. Is the pain big enough? Convert users of OSS into paid product. Iterate on marketing/sales. 2. Activation. Is the medicine easy to take? Are people activating? Simplify, remove friction. Simplify signup, docs, let them get value. 3. Retention. Does the medicine work? Are people using the product for anything, do they still use it after 1 month? Iterate on the product–not to perfect it, but to create value for at least one but real use case.
  13. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 38 Microsoft used to have a 10

    minute rule in the old days: in 10 minutes a customer had to unwrap the CD with the software and do something useful or exciting with it.
  14. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 40 COMMIT TO VELOCITY Useful mechanisms: –

    Launch week every 3 months – Weekly newsletter/stream – Build in public
  15. DEVELOPER WEEK 2024 41 BUT FOR WHOM? You can also

    bootstrap at your own pace: – charge for special features, custom solutions and integration of your open source, and broader consulting – keep your day job – keep learning