HOSB - Building a Bootstrapped Open Source Company: Insights from Jetstack Founder & President, Matt Barker

On this episode of the Hacking #opensource Business podcast, we talk with Matt Barker, the founder, and president of Jetstack. The discussion is about his experience in building a bootstrapped open source company based on his previous work at Canonical and MongoDB. In the interview, Matt talks about sales, business, and open-source technology (Linux, Kubernetes, Mesos, and more!). Matt covers the challenges of selling free open source software, support as a product, retention challenges, and measuring growth and adoption in open source software. Matt also shares his experience in comparing MongoDB and Canonical and starting Jetstack by choosing Kubernetes as the next big thing. The conversation delves into bootstrapping Jetstack with a services model, moving from services to a software product, comparing Kubernetes to Apache Mesos, and betting on truly open software. The interview provides valuable insights into sales, business, and open-source technology, making it an informative resource for anyone looking to learn about bootstrapping an open-source company.

Two Matts and an Avi walk into a conference in London and end up in the Matt Cave... and this is the result.  

00:00:00  Welcome to the Matt Cave
00:01:48  Getting to know Matt Barker and Jetstack
00:02:30  The Early Days of Canonical
00:07:17  Support as a product, retention challenges
00:13:21  Trying to go to the proprietary world from open source
00:14:28  Comparing MongoDB & Canonical
00:17:27  Bootstrapping Jetstack with Services
00:19:50  Moving from services to product
00:22:53  Convinced Kubernetes was the right space
00:24:54  Betting on truly open software instead of open source controlled by 1 company
00:29:43  Measuring growth and adoption
00:33:04  Rapid Fire

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