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Wildest dreams of making profit on open source:...

Irina Nazarova
December 11, 2023

Wildest dreams of making profit on open source: hacker vs. hustler

Open Core Summit 2023

After years of working for an open-source-centric company and launching commercial open-source businesses, my passion is to guide and support founders of dev-facing products, to help them turn from a Pre-Seed into a Unicorn faster and in one piece.

This 20-minute talk focuses on one topic: the key intrinsic conflict in the business of open source, and how to overcome it to gain velocity and precision needed to grow into a successful product organization. Meet the hacker and the hustler!

Irina Nazarova

December 11, 2023
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Transcript

  1. Wildest Dreams of Making Pro fi t on Open Source

    Irina Nazarova CEO, Evil Martians
  2. – Visionary product solving pains with CSS – Hard work

    of the author – Support and guidance from Evil Martians Why did this happen?
  3. ❌ Selling feels like a betrayal ✅ Understand that purchase

    is win/win ❌ Expects customers to behave like contributors Hacker’s challenges
  4. ❌ Selling feels like a betrayal. ✅ Understand that purchase

    is win/win. ❌ Expects customers to behave like contributors ✅ Customers want quick solutions for their pains Hacker’s challenges
  5. ❌ Driven by personal vision for open source ✅ Make

    decisions aligned with business goals Hacker’s challenges
  6. ❌ Driven by personal vision for open source ✅ Make

    decisions aligned with business goals ❌ Trusting and letting go is a challenge Hacker’s challenges
  7. ❌ Driven by personal vision for open source ✅ Make

    decisions aligned with business goals ❌ Trusting and letting go is a challenge ✅ Trust the hustler Hacker’s challenges
  8. – Biased to action – Motivated to build a business

    – Feels the urgency to sell Hustler
  9. Hustler’s challenges ❌ Avoids influencing product decisions (imposter syndrome) ✅

    Gradually take more responsibility for product strategy
  10. Hustler’s challenges ❌ Avoids influencing product decisions (imposter syndrome) ✅

    Gradually take more responsibility for product strategy ❌ Feels alien to open source community
  11. Hustler’s challenges ❌ Avoids influencing product decisions (imposter syndrome) ✅

    Gradually take more responsibility for product strategy ❌ Feels alien to open source community ✅ Become valuable part of the community
  12. How did this work out for us at AnyCable? Real-time

    server for Rails and Next.js apps Open source and Pro version (on premise) GitHub.com/palkan anycable.io
  13. ✅ Simplified AnyCable’s infrastructure and deploy ✅ Made comprehensible Guides

    and Demos ✅ Started charging enterprises for consulting and features Results
  14. ✅ Simplified AnyCable’s infrastructure and deploy ✅ Made comprehensible Guides

    and Demos ✅ Started charging enterprises for consulting and features ✅ Entered new market: Next.js apps Results
  15. – Delivery timelines – Product development – Support – Docs:

    in-depth – Demos – OSS governance – Marketing: releases, educational, memes* – Delivery priorities – Customer interviews – Sales – Docs: Guides, How-to – Pricing – Partnerships – Marketing: case studies, category promotion Example: responsibilities split Hustler Hacker