Episode description

This week on the Business of Open Source I had Galeal Zino, CEO and founder of NetFoundry, which creates OpenZiti. 

One of the most interesting things about the this conversation was the conversation about how to balance whether you’re promoting the product or the project. I talk to a lot of founders who assume that because you have both, you have to promote both. The same goes for SaaS and onprem options — some people think that just because you offer both, you have to build a go to market function for both. This topic came up in the conversation with Joe Duffy as well — in their case, it was the opposite, though. Pulumi started with both open source and commercial product, but put all the emphasis on the open source project for the first two years. 

Some of the interesting takeaways from this episode: 

• Even though there was no “GTM” focus on the open source project at the beginning, it still had business benefits to NetFoundry, because it made prospects more comfortable that they wouldn’t disappear overnight
• How building an open source company is more difficult, because you end up supporting multiple products. But it also can build a flywheel of innovation that you just can’t get any other way. 
• Do you have to get product market fit twice? We had a long conversation about whether or not you have to get product market fit twice in open source companies. 
• We also talked about testing ideas and business models in the actual market, and how lessons learned in other businesses can influence how you approach you take even with open source companies. 

Thank you for listening! 

PS: I’m changing my consulting offerings slightly, to focus on product strategy instead of positioning. And I’m looking for beta clients while I figure out exactly what the offering looks like. So if you’re an open source company and you’re looking for a clear product vision, a better understanding of how your product + project are differentiated and how to build that into your roadmap, reach out.