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Content Roundup: Commercial Open Source Best Practices

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From the Heavybit Library: Commercial Open Source Strategy
1. Podcast: Open Source for Enterprise with HashiCorp and Glenn Solomon
2. Panel Discussion: Organic Growth & Platform Adoption with Netlify, CloudBees and npm, Inc.
3. Panel Discussion: From DevTool to Dev Ecosystem with Zapier, Gitlab, Bitnami and Shopify
4. Fireside Chat: Open Source as Business Strategy
Join us for Packaging, Pricing and Commercializing Open Source
  • Ashley Dotterweich Photo
    Ashley Dotterweich
5 min

In their upcoming fireside chat about Packaging, Pricing and Commercializing Open Source, Kong CEO and co-founder Augusto “Aghi” Marietti and GGVCapital Managing Partner and Kong investor Glenn Solomon will discuss the precarious nature of scaling an open core offering to the enterprise. Whether you’re already planning to come to Aghi and Glenn’s fireside chat or just want to learn a bit more about commercial open source best practices, we’ve curated this list of sessions on what it takes to build an open core business.

From the Heavybit Library: Commercial Open Source Strategy

1. Podcast: Open Source for Enterprise with HashiCorp and Glenn Solomon

I think eventually what we figured out is we really cared more to focus on the enterprise side, if only because we felt like our open source product let us already kind of reach the broader market.

– Armon Dadgar, HashiCorp co-founder and CTO

Glenn Solomon joined HashiCorp co-founder and CTO Armon Dadgar as guests on To Be Continuous to discuss how open source and CI/CD can drive an enterprise-facing business strategy. Check out this podcast to learn how HashiCorp identified opportunities for enterprise open source, how they approached those opportunities, and the impact of open source on their enterprise sales. Listen to Open Source for Enterprise here.

2. Panel Discussion: Organic Growth & Platform Adoption with Netlify, CloudBees and npm, Inc.

If you’re going to do something that’s developer-centered, you need an open source community as its base.

– Christina Noren, CPO of CloudBees

Open source projects can often build an organic following in their early days. But how do free-tier products, open source software, and community-focused projects feed into larger go-to-market strategies? In this panel, moderator Erin McKean is joined by a panel of C-level executives from Netlify, CloudBees, and npm, Inc. to discuss the need to balance support for developer communities with scaling their products for enterprise audiences. Watch the session here.

3. Panel Discussion: From DevTool to Dev Ecosystem with Zapier, Gitlab, Bitnami and Shopify

One thing we did early on is set out to be very transparent about what we do. It started because we wanted to make sure that we didn’t alienate the community. If you can look into a company you have more understanding, and you can more quickly say when something goes off the rails.

– Sid Sijbrandij, Co-Founder and CEO of GitLab

Most startups begin with a single product, but few find long-term success without diversifying their offerings. In this panel, founders from Zapier, GitLab, and Bitnami sit down to discuss how their organizations made the transition from single devtool to massive, complex ecosystems. Watch the session to learn about the unique challenges of productizing open source projects for enterprise audiences.

4. Fireside Chat: Open Source as Business Strategy

I think there’s something unique structurally about it as an open source library that makes it really amenable to driving traffic in a funnel towards a hosted version of a product.

– Peter Reinhardt, Segment CEO and co-founder

Open source projects can foster natural communities of early, highly-engaged users who are eager to provide feedback. In this Heavybit Fireside Chat, former Keen.io Director of Marketing Alexa Meyer is joined by Segment CEO and co-founder Peter Reinhardt to discuss open source as a valuable way to capture feedback from the community and better understand product/market fit. Watch or Read Open Source as Business Strategy here.

Join us for Packaging, Pricing and Commercializing Open Source

Interested in attending our fireside chat on the challenges of balancing open source software with business growth? Aghi and Glenn will be discussing what it means to concurrently manage, triage, and support two totally different audiences at Packaging, Pricing and Commercializing Open Source. Join their session to learn about the org-design and cultural changes required to maintain a stellar end-user experience for all.