Shows
The Craft Of Open SourceMatt Althauser & Alex Boswell, Founding Partners Of PolychromeAchieving your financial goals in the world of commercial open-source requires careful planning and strong commitment. Ben Rometsch is joined by Matt Althauser and Alex Boswell, founding partners of Polychrome, who share their journey from hitting their first $10k annual recurring revenue to reaching their first $1M ARR. Matt and Alex talks about the role of a dedicated community support in shaping their financial strategies and the importance of setting clarity on their target customers’ needs. They also reveal their secrets in building a well-rounded team and navigating the ever-changing licenses for open-source projects. ...
2025-10-1835 min
The Craft Of Open SourceJason Bosco, CEO & Co-Founder Of TypesenseBen Rometsch explores the superpowers of running an open-source startup with return guest Jason Bosco, CEO and co-founder of Typesense. Jason shares how their company achieved impressive growth by cultivating community building and collaboration through well-crafted one-source projects. He also talks about the role of open-source in creating engaging marketing strategies, speeding up feedback gathering, and streamlining hiring processes.
2025-09-2536 min
The Craft Of Open SourceKyle Johnson, Co-Founder Of FlagsmithBen Rometsch chats with Kyle Johnson, co-founder of Flagsmith, about their 11-year journey together in the commercial open-source software (COSS) space. He talks about his transition from engineering to entrepreneur and back again by detailing how he navigated the evolution of his career. Kyle discusses how they have developed feature flagging as a response to the limitations of existing solutions. He also shares the proudest moments of his professional life, from managing a global remote team to offering advice to open-source project creators in creating customer-centric applications.
2025-09-0432 min
The Craft Of Open SourceMalcolm Matalka: Co-Founder at TerrateamInterview With Malcolm Matalka: Co-Founder, TerrateamBen Rometsch chats with Malcolm Matalka, co-founder of Terrateam, to discuss the company’s inception and its eventual shift to open source. Together, they discuss how his frustrations with the click ops approach prompted Malcolm to create his own team to disrupt the system and pave the way for much more innovative methods. He opens up about the challenges they faced due to the licensing changes of HashiCrop and how it led to the creation of OpenTofu. The two also emphasize the undeniable dynamic of community-driven projects and ho...
2025-02-2550 min
The Craft Of Open SourceSam Stepanyan, OWASP London Chapter Leader & OWASP Global Board MemberWith almost every transaction being done through the internet, your personal information and finances must be protected at all costs from hackers and scammers. Therefore, cybersecurity is important now more than ever. Leading the charge in keeping the digital world safe and secure is OWASP, a non-profit organization working mainly on software security. Joining this episode is Sam Stepanyan from the OWASP London Chapter who emphasizes why cybersecurity must be accomplished at the start of development, not as an afterthought. He also explains why education on cybersecurity is severely lacking and what should be done to make it a...
2025-02-1153 min
PurePerformanceWhat's next for Feature Flagging and OpenFeature with Ben RometschFeature Flagging - some may call them "glorified if-statements" - has been a development practice for decades. But have we reached a stage where organizations are doing "Feature Flag-Driven Development?". After all it took years to establish a test-driven development culture despite having great tools and frameworks available!To learn more we invited Ben Rometsch, Co-Founder of Flagsmith, to chat about the history, state and future of Feature Flagging. He is giving us an update on where the market is heading, how the CNCF project OpenFeature and its community is driving best practices, what the role of AI might...
2025-02-0350 min
The Craft Of Open SourceChris Villa, Co-Founder of Puck & MeasuredInterview With Chris Villa: Co-Founder, Puck & MeasuredPuck, an open-source project, has exploded in popularity, becoming a major focus for Chris Villa and his team. But how do you balance a runaway open-source hit with the demands of running a consultancy? Join Ben Rometsch as he sits down with Chris Villa, co-founder of both Puck and Measured, to dissect this very dilemma. Chris reveals the fascinating origin story of Puck, its meteoric rise, and the overwhelming "pull" from the community that signals a powerful product-market fit. Find out Chris and his team's bold plan to spin Puck...
2025-01-2150 min
The Craft Of Open SourceJames McLeod: Open Source Program Lead at NatWest GroupJoining this episode is James McLeod, Open Source Program Lead at NatWest Group. He looks back on his career journey, from his role at the Linux Foundation, his efforts in scaling the FINOS project, to the creation of London.js. Reflecting on the many lessons throughout his professional life, James stressed the importance of proper data documentation and education to make open source more accessible to the public. He also explained what it takes for engineers to fully embrace their roles in the wider digital ecosystem, making open source an essential platform for career advancement and development.
2025-01-0756 min
The Bootstrapped Founder363: Ben Rometsch — From Side Projects to Industry GiantsBen Rometsch (@dabeeeenster.bsky.social), the founder of Flagsmith, created a bootstrapped SaaS success story. Feature flags are transforming software deployment by decoupling releases and enhancing control. And Ben bootstrapped this deceptively simple-looking part of engineering into a significant software business. And then there's the open-source part of all that. The Open Feature project is setting new standards in software development, akin to OpenTelemetry. Ben shares insights into this collaborative open-source initiative and takes you on a decade-long journey running a software agency in London, where creativity thrived, leading to the creation of a cost-effective, open-source feature f...
2024-12-1853 min
The Craft Of Open SourceMoritz Klack & Christopher Möller: Co-Founders, xyflowThis episode features Moritz Klack and Christopher Möller, Co-Founders of xyflow. They look back on their career journey leading to their current company, from developing webkid, creating Datablocks, and launching React Flow. They discuss their transition from agency work to open source, their pricing strategies, and the importance of community feedback. Moritz and Christopher also bare their plans for the future and what trends in the digital space they are most excited about.
2024-12-1034 min
The Craft Of Open SourceKonstantin Vinogradov, General Partner At Runa CapitalWith their keen eye for innovation and their knack for spotting the next big thing, Runa Capital is at the forefront of the tech revolution. In this episode, Ben Rometsch delves into the world of open-source software with Konstantin Vinogradov, General Partner at Runa Capital. Konstantin reflects on the founding principles of Runa Capital and its commitment to investing in open source and AI technologies. He also discusses the potential for open-source endowments to provide long-term support for open-source projects, drawing parallels to the funding mechanisms of universities. Join them as they delve into the intersection of technology, investment...
2024-11-0543 min
The Craft Of Open SourceIvan Burazin: Co-Founder of DaytonaIvan Burazin proudly presents Daytona, a secure open-source development environment manager that allows developers to tailor their environments according to their specific needs. Ivan looks back on how their company started as an enterprise product before becoming an open-source project for individual developers. He breaks down its most important features, particularly those that assure ease of use, clarity, and simplicity. Ivan also explains how automation and AI tools could further improve Daytona, all while balancing user privacy and accurate data collection.
2024-10-1549 min
The Craft Of Open SourceChuck Carpenter: Founder, Shepherd Pro & Host, Whiskey Web and WhatnotBuckle up for a journey into Shepherd! In this episode, Chuck Carpenter, the founder of Shepherd Pro and host of Whiskey Web and Whatnot, joins Ben Rometsch to delve into Shepherd and Shepherd JS, an influential open-source library for creating interactive guides in JavaScript. Chuck shares his deep involvement over seven years as a maintainer, highlighting Shepherd’s evolution from its origins at HubSpot to becoming a robust tool with broad community adoption. Don’t miss Chuck’s insights on Shepherd’s edge in the user experience space, its business potential, and his vision for leading the developer community forward.
2024-08-2742 min
The Craft Of Open SourceJulius Volz, CoFounder of PrometheusManaging a modern application landscape can be a balancing act. Enter Prometheus, an open-source champion for monitoring and alerting. In this episode, Julius Volz, co-founder of Prometheus and founder of PromLabs, joins Ben Rometsch to discuss the origins and evolution of Prometheus. Julius traces its inception to his early days at Google and SoundCloud, where the need for a robust monitoring system inspired Prometheus. He explains how Prometheus revolutionized monitoring with its pull-based approach, powerful PromQL query language, and flexible data model, enabling effective monitoring, alerting, and automation. Discover how Prometheus continues to shape the future of monitoring!
2024-08-1353 min
The Craft Of Open SourceJonathan Schneider: Co-Founder, ModerneModerne is a pioneer in the field of mass-scale automated code refactoring, and it has some pretty interesting origins. In this episode, co-founder Jonathan Schneider talks about the genesis of Moderne, how he started his open-source journey from being an engineer at Netflix, and their current initiatives, including some interesting developments at Openhaus. Tune in for more details!
2024-07-3043 min
The Craft Of Open SourceDeb Goodkin, Executive Director at The FreeBSD FoundationEver wondered how the backbone of streaming giants like Netflix or gaming consoles like Sony PlayStation ticks? Dive deep with us in this episode as we unravel the legacy and impact of FreeBSD, one of the unsung heroes of the tech world. Join us in an insightful conversation with Deb Goodkin, the Executive Director of the FreeBSD Foundation, as we explore the history, evolution, and significance of FreeBSD. From its roots in Berkeley UNIX to its integral role in modern technology, Deb sheds light on why this powerful, cohesive operating system stands out from Linux and how its permissive...
2024-07-1646 min
The Craft Of Open SourceEddie Jaoude, Open Source ConsultantSuccess is not just about focusing on the grind. It is also about applying yourself every single day and letting your efforts compound over time. In this episode, open source consultant Eddie Jaoude shares how he applied this mindset in his own career path. Joining Ben Rometsch, he explains how he successfully built a strong online following through his edutainment content about the open source industry, especially on Twitter. Eddie also opens up on how he takes care of his mental health as he deals with online trolls, toxic feedback, and negative comments on social media every single day....
2024-06-1151 min
Scaling DevToolsBootstrapping Flagsmith to $3m ARRBen Rometsch is the founder of Flagsmith. Flagsmith is a Feature Flag & Remote Config Service that recently reached $3m ARR.Ben candidly shares exactly how they started, how they got enterprise customers and how they worked with Polychrome to take Flagsmith to the next level.Links:Ben's Twitter https://x.com/dabeeeensterFlagsmith https://www.flagsmith.com/Polychrome https://polychrome.com/This episode is sponsored by WorkOS. If you're thinking about selling to enterprise customers, WorkOS can help you add enterprise features like Single Sign On and audit logs.
2024-06-0650 min
The Craft Of Open SourceAri Zilka, CEO of MyDecisive.aiIn this episode of The Craft of Open Source, Ari Zilka describes his transition from his previous projects to founding a new company that aims to improve control over observability data in IT. He identifies issues with current observability tools, such as high costs and lack of flexibility, and propose using OpenTelemetry to offer a more customizable and manageable system. This new approach gives DevOps teams better tools for handling large amounts of data, ensuring security, and optimizing costs without relying on proprietary solutions. Tune in to learn more about MyDecisive.ai and Ari's outlook on the open-source space!
2024-06-0444 min
The Craft Of Open SourceBirk Jernström, CEO/Founder at PolarBen Rometsch sits down with Birk Jernström, who shares the genesis story of Polar, a creator platform for developers. He explains how he established his company using his experiences and expertise gained from Tictail and Shopify. Birk discusses how he changes the status quo for open-source developers in terms of working on their passions full-time and independently. He also talks about the power of changing your perspectives and how he handles the needs of every single person down the dependency tree.
2024-05-1440 min
Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Web Development, NeatFlagging Features and Dropping Beats with Ben RometschIn this episode of Whiskey Web and Whatnot, hosts RobbieTheWagner and Charles William Carpenter III are joined by Ben Rometsch, CEO and co-founder of Flagsmith.
The discussion kicks off with a lighthearted conversation about the absence of landscapers at Chuck's house, leading into Ben's unexpected affinity for the New Orleans Saints due to a memorable game at Wembley in London.
Ben shares his journey from running a web agency for 23 years to starting Flagsmith as a side project, which has now become a growing business with 97 percent of its codebase being open-source.
The...
2024-05-091h 07The Craft Of Open SourceHeather Meeker, Founding Partner at OSS CapitalThese past few years, open-source has been on the fast track to dominating the software market. It might sound contradictory to many people, but open-source is big business. A project’s source code may be free, but the products generated from that source code can certainly be commercialized. If you’re a project developer, therein lies the potential for economic benefit, if only you had the financial backing and business know-how. Heather Meeker, Founding Partner at OSS Capital returns to the show to talk about the different aspects of open-source business, from finding venture capital backing to navigating the intr...
2024-04-0954 min
AmazicFlagsmith uses feature flagging to make releases predictable and even excitingToo many new features to release, and too many fires to put
out with each release. If this resonates with you, you'll want to listen to this episode with Ben Rometsch, Co-Founder & CEO of Flagsmith. Feature flagging is a great way to reduce the risk of new features breaking things in production. As a bonus, it helps you reduce and simplify your environments.
2024-03-061h 00The Craft Of Open SourceJoe Duffy, CEO and Founder of PulumiJoin us in this episode, where we take a deep dive into the story of Pulumi with its CEO and Founder, Joe Duffy. From its inception in 2016 with the ambitious goal of simplifying cloud infrastructure management through the creation of a new programming language, Joe takes us on a journey into the team’s evolution that helped Pulumi become what it is today. He talks about the intricacies of Pulumi Cloud, insights product, and the strategic alignment of Pulumi’s business model with the community's success. Get ready for a candid conversation as Joe shares his insights on overcoming chal...
2024-02-2036 minThe Craft Of Open SourceOleg Nenashev, Governance Board/Core Maintainer, JenkinsJenkins, an open-source stalwart and a foundational project of the Continuous Delivery Foundation, underwent a transformative journey towards independence within the foundation. In this conversation with Oleg Nenashev, Governance Board/Core Maintainer, we navigate through the significance of feature flags in continuous integration and delivery, culminating in excitement about the potential standardization through the open feature project. Shifting gears, the conversation delves into WireMock, a widely-used API mocking tool, exploring its capabilities, commercial extensions, and upcoming improvements in version 3. Oleg emphasizes collaboration and alignment across diverse languages and repositories. The conversation concludes by spotlighting Penpot, an open-source design platform...
2024-01-0936 minThe Craft Of Open SourceShauli Rozen, CEO & Cofounder of ARMOWith the digital world evolving nonstop, keeping your data secure must be one of your top priorities at all times. Shauli Rozen of ARMO explains how they help end-users and developers address their Kubernetes security needs through Kubescape. In this episode, he explains how their software applies security remediation without breaking the application, bringing DevOps and security together. Shauli also shares the various projects they studied and gathered ideas from in developing Kubescape and how it helps solve the ever-transforming security issues of the open-source industry.
2023-12-1833 min
The Business of Open SourceFrom Open-Source Side Project to Enterprise SaaS Solution with Ben RometschBen Rometsch is the CEO and Founder of Flagsmith, an open-source feature flagging platform. In this conversation, we explore how he landed on the idea to develop an open-source feature flagging project and how that has snowballed into running a full-time SaaS company. Ben describes the challenges of creating a SaaS company from the ground up, especially when it comes to pricing and monetizing. We also discuss the importance of understanding and choosing the right licensing for your product. Highlights:Intro (00:00)I introduce Ben Rometsch, who is the CEO of Flagsmith, a commercial open-source feature...
2023-12-1339 minThe Craft Of Open SourceDidier Lopes, CEO and Founder of OpenBBOpenBB stands at the crossroads of innovation, uniting open-source spirit with financial prowess to empower every individual. In this episode of our podcast, Didier Lopes discusses OpenBB, a revolutionary platform aiming to democratize access to financial data. From its inception to its evolution into a versatile financial data hub, Didier shows how OpenBB thrives as a bridge connecting financial data for everyone. Join us as we explore the potential future directions for OpenBB, envisioning an ecosystem where financial data is seamlessly accessible, customized, and affordable for all types of users. Tune in now!
2023-11-2845 min
Semaphore UncutBen Rometsch on Product Simplicity Over HypenessCompanies differing motivations and resources determine their priorities and impact how they develop their products. In this way, not all companies base their business model on building a product to solve a real problem. Still, some of them do. In the case of Flagsmith, a commercial open-source feature flagging software, its developers focus on features that are valuable to its users instead of gambling on market hype. This episode will explore Flagsmith's origins, design philosophy, and recommendations for putting it to use.Listen to the full episode or read the transcript o...
2023-11-1419 min
The Craft Of Open SourceEmily Omier, Positioning Strategy Consultant for Open Source StartupsPositioning for open source startups is directly connected not just to their free resource but also their commercial strategy. How should business leaders approach this to yield the best results and maintain a well-performing team? In this episode, Positioning Strategy Consultant for open source startups Emily Omier talks about keeping teams in alignment and in the same feedback loop. She explains how this approach can help them navigate through the complex mind games involved in these projects and why she considers the government as the best open source clients out there. Emily also shares how she sees the industry...
2023-11-1447 min
The Craft Of Open SourcePete Hunt, CEO of Elementl/DagsterData is the name of the game in today’s world. But with the amount of data sources today, how do you sift through and get the data you want? A data pipeline is the answer, and within that pipeline is a data orchestrator. Today’s guest, Pete Hunt, is the CEO of Elementl, the company behind the open-source orchestration platform, Dagster. He joins Ben Rometsch to tell us all about Elementl and Dagster as well as his career journey that took him across Facebook, Instagram, Smyte, and Twitter. In this current fluctuating environment, we can say it is a fe...
2023-10-3144 min
The Craft Of Open SourceHannah Aubry, Community Manager at Fastly/Fast ForwardCelebrating the unsung heroes of open source, Fastly is shaping a future where technology meets kindness, collaboration, and a better internet for all. In this episode, we interview Hannah Aubry who shares how they are doing these things by undergoing significant innovation and a rebrand to become Fast Forward. She sheds light on the incredible contributions of the most skilled individuals behind open-source technology and how organizations like theirs are stepping up to empower them. Hannah also covers how Fastly is championing change in this particular space while celebrating the most talented builders of the digital world.
2023-10-1726 min
The Craft Of Open SourceMisko Hevery, CTO at Builder.ioIn web development, we're not just crafting code; we're shaping the digital world's future. In this episode, we interview Misko Hevery, co-founder of Builder.io, about the landscape of web development and the cutting-edge Qwik framework. Misko starts by diving into Builder.io. Discover how it aims to bridge the gap between visual web content creation and developers' expertise, creating a win-win situation for both parties. Moving on to the world of Qwik, Misko expounds on its unique approach of delivering components rather than JSON data, resulting in unparalleled user experiences. Explore how Qwik challenges the conventions of existing fr...
2023-10-0343 min
The Craft Of Open SourcePeer Richelsen, Co-Founder of Cal.comIt takes great effort to build something with the fastest star growth count. And with Cal.com, they have the greatest domain, mission, and product that made that growth possible! In this episode, Peer Richelsen, the Co-Founder of Cal.com, takes us into the scheduling infrastructure they’ve built to help everyone focus on their meeting, not making meetings. Peer also touches on what he needs to qualify as an Open Scheduling. Meet Cal.com today and make booking easier for you.
2023-09-1943 min
The Craft Of Open SourceDarko Fabijan, Co-Founder at SemaphoreDo you spend so much time building and running your pipeline? That doesn’t have to be the case anymore. In this episode, Darko Fabijan, the co-founder of Semaphore, shares the efforts Darko and his team went into improving Semaphore products to serve their clients. Through the development of their products, it minimizes the time spent in running your pipeline with CI/CD Solutions. Darko also explains how Semaphore On-Premise functions as your team grows. Join us in this episode and learn how Semaphore makes development teams move faster.
2023-09-0534 min
The Craft Of Open SourceAlois Reitbauer, Chief Technology Strategist at DynatraceWhen it comes to technology, having reliable monitoring is crucial to ensuring a positive user experience and the seamless operation of an app. Dynatrace is a company that specializes in enhancing the digital environment of organizations with their cutting-edge solutions, unlocking the full potential of digital intelligence. Their innovative platform has the power to propel your business to new heights. In this episode, Alois Reitbauer, the Chief Technology Strategist at Dynatrace, dives into how they discern the fundamental specifications and overall project vision beyond its individual components. He also explains the development of Open Feature and how collaborative efforts...
2023-08-2237 min
The Craft Of Open SourceJustin Abrahms, Principal Architect/Governing Board of OpenFeatureFrom passion projects to corporate powerhouses, open source has evolved into a force that shapes the tech industry's future, driven by the collective efforts of passionate individuals and visionary companies. In this episode, we interview Justin Abrahms, the Principal Architect/Governing Board of OpenFeature, to discuss the diverse landscape of open-source development and its impact on the tech industry. He discusses the early days of open source, when companies like Google and eBay were just beginning to recognize their potential. Justin explained how these companies, although lacking the breakout successes of Kubernetes, played a crucial role in the open-source...
2023-08-0835 min
The Craft Of Open SourceMax Howell, CEO of tea.xyzTea is the catalyst that shifts open source from a labor of love to a sustainable revolution, ensuring that the creators behind our digital infrastructure receive the funding they deserve. In this episode, we sit down with Max Howell, the visionary mind behind the Tea Package Manager, and explore his journey from building the widely popular Homebrew (Brew) to embarking on a mission to fix open-source remuneration. With passion and determination, Max shares his vision for Tea, a groundbreaking solution aimed at reshaping the funding landscape for open-source projects. He walks through the intricate workings of Tea, where voluntary d...
2023-07-2543 min
Open Source Startup PodcastE95: Why Feature Flagging Should Be Open Source With FlagsmithBen Rometsch is Co-Founder & CEO of Flagsmith, the commercial open source real-time feature flagging platform. The Flagsmith project has almost 3K stars on GitHub and provides feature flagging and remote configuration services that can be hosted on prem or using their hosted software.
In this episode, we discuss building a startup in a profitable way, why open source matters for feature flagging, finding direction with little signal early-on & much more!
2023-07-1737 min
The Craft Of Open SourceRob Moffat, Senior Technical Architect at FINOSFor the longest time, financial services organizations have largely been consumers of open-source technology, and they haven’t been very keen in moving towards the contribution side. But things are starting to change as a lot of organizations in the space are beginning to give more weight to the idea of using their resources to help maintain and improve the open-source projects that they use. FINOS leads the way in promoting open innovation in the financial services industry. Joining us on the podcast today to tell us more about it is the nonprofit’s Senior Technical Architect, Rob Moffat. In t...
2023-07-1138 min
The Craft Of Open SourceKamran Ahmed, Founder of roadmap.shMany of us struggle with where to start whenever we embark on a new journey. For developers contending in such a fast-paced and ever-growing environment, it can be confusing to figure out what to learn next. This episode’s guest is breaking down this barrier. Kamran Ahmed created roadmap.sh to help developers find their path and help them learn and grow in their careers. Kamran joins us to share his remarkable journey as the founder of this great resource project. Initially met with mixed responses, his brainchild has blossomed into a thriving community-driven initiative. Kamran shares insights into ma...
2023-06-2738 min
Hackers Archives - Software Engineering DailyShipping Features with Ben RometschFeature flags also known as feature toggles, release toggles or feature flippers are a way to enable or disable a particular feature from your app without making any changes to the source code. You can turn on or off a particular functionality without deploying new code. Feature flags can also be used to serve different features to different subset of users.
The company Flagsmith provides you a platform for developing, implementing and managing your feature flags. Ben Rometsch is the Co-founder and the CEO of Flagsmith and he joins us today.
The post Shipping...
2023-06-151h 09
Software Engineering DailyShipping Features with Ben RometschFeature flags also known as feature toggles, release toggles or feature flippers are a way to enable or disable a particular feature from your app without making any changes to the source code. You can turn on or off a particular functionality without deploying new code. Feature flags can also be used to serve different features to different subset of users.The company Flagsmith provides you a platform for developing, implementing and managing your feature flags. Ben Rometsch is the Co-founder and the CEO of Flagsmith and he joins us today. Learn more...
2023-06-141h 12
The Craft Of Open SourceEmre Baran, CEO & Co-Founder At CerbosAuthorization can be a time-consuming process, but you can never get away from it because it is just as essential to your product and business. What if there is a way to make this easy? With Cerbos, that is possible. Cerbos is the authorization layer for software applications to be able to quickly and securely implement roles and permissions. In this episode, its CEO and Founder Emre Baran joins us to help us get to know the work they are doing and how they have built and grown it. He talks about decoupling authorization, making life easy for developers...
2023-06-1345 min
The Craft Of Open SourceDaniel Lenton, CEO Of IvyThere is fragmentation in the field of AI that no one seems to be taking too seriously. Daniel Lenton, the CEO of Ivy, observed this, finding so many frameworks, models, infrastructures, and hardware that make it hard for collaboration. Helping solve this problem, Ivy was created to unify all Machine Learning (ML) frameworks. In this episode, he tells us how they made it possible to fit these pieces together. Daniel also takes us through his journey prior to Ivy, the walls they hit in the labs, and the lessons they learned overcoming them. Talking about Ivy’s growth, he th...
2023-06-0648 min
The Craft Of Open SourceSpecial Episode - Ben Rometsch, Founder & CEO Of Flagsmith And The Craft Of Open SourceFlagsmith's CEO, Ben Rometsch, is a true champion of open source. His software revolution is turning heads among developers, by unlocking the true potential of simplicity and sustainability in the digital world. In this special interview episode, Jason Bosco from Type Sense takes charge and conducts an exciting conversation with Ben Rometsch. Today’s episode unravels the story behind Flagsmith and the pivotal moments that drove its creation. Jason probes Ben with insightful questions, exploring his decision to embrace open source from the start and the strategic considerations around its future monetization. Together, they discuss the significance of self-hosting fo...
2023-05-3047 min
The Craft Of Open SourceNanoVMsThis whole idea of having an operating system that runs many different programs on one computer is completely outdated and doesn't reflect reality whatsoever. The question is, “What would an operating system look like for something in 2020 to serve up the software?” That's where NanoVMs come in with a unikernel concept. Today, its CEO, Ian Eyberg, takes us into a deep dive into unikernels and how they function. Tune in to discover how to efficiently manage virtual machines and create a truly agile environment for your software development.
2023-05-1644 minThe Craft Of Open SourceCapRoverIn this episode, we welcome Kasra Bigdeli, Engineering Manager at CapRover. He shares how he built an open-source version of Heroku that features one-click apps. He explains how he designed it to be newbie-friendly: easy to navigate and full of contextual help. Kasra also talks about using only organic techniques in marketing CapRover, and now its community is naturally growing with more than a hundred projects.
2023-05-0938 minThe Craft Of Open SourceReact-AdminWhen you create something you love, it feels good to give it away for people to tinker around and do great things with it. That is what is open-source is all about. But what happens when the cost of maintaining an open-source project becomes too high to sustain? Some people would abandon it, but not Francois Zaninotto, CEO of Marmelab. Realizing the untapped potential of React-Admin, he managed to build a sustainable business model from an open-source core. Find out how he did it in this conversation. Plus, get a glimpse of his other project, GreenFrame.io, which allows...
2023-05-0240 minThe Craft Of Open SourceProject CalicoBen Rometsch and Matt Althauser sit down with Shaun Campton, Principal Engineer at Tigera, who shares his experiences as a core developer on Project Calico. He talks about their origins of moving out of the era of doing forklift moves into OpenStack and down the development of network splitting, focusing more on a dynamic firewall approach. He opens up on his experiences writing their first 10,000 lines of code, their identity-based policy, and the value they are offering to clients. Shaun also provides insights on what may be next for Kubernetes and how open-source projects must get ready for any...
2023-04-2537 min
The Craft Of Open SourceOpenFeatureAs simple as they seem, feature flags cannot be underestimated. The more you dive into what it offers, the more you realize how much it can clean up your code base. Mike Beamer and Todd Baert saw the value it could further provide and founded OpenFeature. OpenFeature is an open standard for feature flag management, created to support a robust feature flag ecosystem using cloud-native technologies. In this episode, they share with us the work they are doing as well as the genesis of OpenFeature as part of Dynatrace. Mike and Todd then talk about their vision, measuring their pro...
2022-12-0845 minThe Craft Of Open SourceVercelWhen Guillermo Rauch started Vercel, people asked him, “what came first, the idea of simplifying global delivery or the idea of creating a framework?” He answered, “what about both?” Guillermo explored the conception of a system where it gets better. The more it gets global, the more resilient and dynamic it becomes that the operations go away. In this episode, he tells us how he took on these two problems, watched them co-evolve, and founded Vercel—a platform for frontend developers, providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration. Guillermo shares how they are democr...
2022-11-2546 minThe Craft Of Open SourceBagistoLaravelis one of the most popular PHP web frameworks today and has gained much traction worldwide. However, one thing it doesn't have is a proper e-commerce system. Saurav Pathak took this gap between Laravel and the developer community as a business opportunity. He joins Ben Rometsch to share how he bootstrapped a company called Magisto, an open-source eCommerce ecosystem that provides reliable support to the merchant community. Saurav explains the community management strategies that spelled success for their team, their marketing tactics, and how they drew inspiration(and perform alongside) eCommerce giants like Shopify.
2022-11-1042 minThe Craft Of Open SourceDatastaxApache Cassandra paved the way for today's biggest digital platforms to scale into the much bigger global scene. Patrick McFadin of Datastax is one of the people involved in this open-source project and saw first-hand how it burst into the world. He joins Ben Rometsch to share how Cassandra was developed, the many challenges they faced in its optimization, its relationship with Datastax, and how it changed database engine creation and data modeling. Patrick also talks about the measures they are implementing to continuously improve Cassandra and limit open-source access to ensure quality.
2022-10-2850 min
The Craft Of Open SourceMike McNeil, CEO @ FleetFleet is the most widely used open-source OSQuery manager. It allows you to get accurate data from every endpoint in your organization and allow organizations to have complete control over their data. Fleet has been instrumental in businesses, for it is a scalable and resilient platform that manages your workloads. In this episode, Mike McNeil, the CEO of Fleet, explains how Fleet and OSQuery can significantly help your organization. Listen to this episode and learn more from Mike as he shares more information about Fleet as an open-source OSQuery manager.
2022-07-2631 minThe Craft Of Open Sourcerocket.chat W/ Co-Founder And CEO Gabriel EngelJoin Ben Rometsch as he talks to Gabriel Engel, the founder and CEO of Rocket Chat.
2022-06-291h 02The Craft Of Open SourceTemporal w/ Co-Founder and CEO Maxim Fateev & Head of Product Ryland GoldsteinTemporal's Co-Founder and CEO, Maxim Fateev, and Head of Product, Ryland Goldstein sit down with Ben to talk about open source and the origin of their project. Temporal is a microservice orchestration platform which enables developers to build scalable applications without sacrificing productivity or reliability. Temporal server executes units of application logic, Workflows, in a resilient manner that automatically handles intermittent failures, and retries failed operations.
2022-06-2050 minThe Craft Of Open SourceGreg Hayes, Creator Of DaskGreg Hayes, Director of Engineering at Coiled joins Ben to talk about the Dask project. Dask makes it easy to scale the Python libraries that you know and love like NumPy, pandas and scikit-learn.
2022-06-1429 minThe Craft Of Open SourceRackN W/ Founder And CEO Rob HirschfeldRob Hirschfeld is the founder and CEO of RackN, providing secure workflows and modular life-cycle automation for bare metal, edge, and cloud. Rob is a proponent of collaboration in the open source software industry. In this episode, he joins Ben Rometsch to share his insight and ideas from an infrastructure perspective on what needs solving and the potential outcomes.
2022-06-0745 minThe Craft Of Open SourceAppsmith W/ Founder And CEO Nikhil NandagopalAs a company grows, internal tools start to play a bigger role, and these tools become harder to maintain. This is why Appsmith was created. It's an open-source platform that lets you create these internal tools. Join Ben Rometsch as he talks to Nikhil Nandagopal about Appsmith.
2022-05-3148 minThe Craft Of Open SourceMeilisearch w/ Co-Founder Thomas PayetThomas Payet, Co-founder & COO of Meilisearch
2022-05-1748 minThe Craft Of Open SourceSebastian Rindom, Co-Founder & CEO @ MedusaMedusa is an open source headless e-commerce platform founded by Sebastian Rindom. The company provides software for sellers to develop a unique commerce experience.
2022-03-1543 minThe Craft Of Open SourcePeer Richelsen, Co-Founder & Co-CEO @ Cal.comCal.com offers scheduling for everyone. Ben Rometsch and the CEO of Cal.com, Peer Richelsen, give us a look at the nuts and bolts of this open source project. Peer goes back to the founding of the company, getting funded and how they approach integration with other apps.
2022-03-0149 minThe Craft Of Open SourceVideo.js With Creator Steve HeffernanThese days, video is everybody’s favorite mode of media consumption. But what really goes into video and the technology behind it? Today’s guest is video technology enthusiast, Steve Heffernan. Steve is the Co-Founder at Mux and Creator of Video.js, a web video player built from the ground up for an HTML5 world. Steve gets deep into the complexities of the space and where it’s headed as it scales. The future is video. Learn all about the space and what Steve’s company is up to next by tuning in!
2022-02-0237 minThe Craft Of Open SourceHoppscotch With Founder And CEO, Liyas ThomasHoppscotch is an open-source API development ecosystem that gets you straight to the points and helps you create API requests faster. Join Ben Rometsch and his guest, Liyas Thomas, the Founder and CEO of Hoppscotch, as they dive into how Hoppscotch came to be. Discover how Liyas started it with a single post and how that post got viral. Learn how to find the right audience that knows what they want to do. Find out how Liyas created the clean and slick user interface of Hoppscotch and why it doesn't have a landing page. Finally, discover how he does bu...
2021-12-2143 minThe Craft Of Open SourceExpo With Founder And CEO, Charlie CheeverCo-Founder of Quora.com, early Facebook engineer and now CEO and Co-Founder of Expo, Charlie Cheever joins Ben Rometsch to talk about how Expo is helping engineers seamlessly release their products on all platforms instantly.
2021-12-1453 minThe Craft Of Open SourceRill Data With Founder And CEO, Michael DriscollData is bigger than ever. In this episode, Michael Driscoll shares just where big data is heading and how the industry is changing with it. Michael is the Founder and CEO of Rill Data and Co-founder of Metamarkets.
2021-11-3039 minThe Craft Of Open SourceBrowserless: From Github Issue to Sustainable Business w/ Joel Griffith, Founder and CEOBen sits down with the Browserless founder and CEO Joel Griffith. Joel shares how he turned a github issue into a profitable business that helps thousands of companies around the world.
2021-11-2348 minThe Craft Of Open SourceHashiCorp's (@HashiCorp) journey from open source project to unicorn with Founder Mitchell Hashimoto (@mitchellh) and Ben Rometsch (@getflagsmith)Mitchell Hashimoto's company HashiCorp is the creator of Vagrant, Packer, Serf, Consul, Terraform, Vault, and Nomad. Together, these open source projects have over 100,000 stars on Github and exist to help engineers better with consistent workflows to provision, secure, connect, and run any infrastructure for any application.
2021-11-0246 minThe Craft Of Open SourceThe founding story of Typesense (@typesense) with Co-Founder and CTO Jason Basco (@jasonbosco)What does it take to build a good open-source search engine? Ben Rometsch, CEO of Flagsmith, sits down for a lively discussion on Typesense's search engine technology with its co-creator, Jason Bosco. Jason discusses the origin of Typesense and their design choices, including the unusual choice of using C++ for its creation. We also hear about their decision to go open source and how the community is helping them refine their product. This is an episode you must not miss if you want to learn more about open source and search engine design.
2021-08-3151 minThe Craft Of Open SourceSebastien Lorber, DocusaurusDocusaurus lead developer Sebastien Lorber has some interesting insights to share. As a freelance contractor, Sebastien leads the development of the Docusaurus open-source project for Facebook. Docusaurus is a static site generator that generates a modern single-page application from Markdown files so that website creators can focus on creating their content.
2021-08-1744 minThe Craft Of Open SourcePablo Múzquiz, PenpotPablo Múzquiz, CEO & co-founder of Penpot. Penpot gives design freedom for teams. In this episode, Pablo takes Ben Rometsch behind the scenes on how they came up with Penpot. Join in the conversation and discover Penpot’s groundbreaking potential for designers.
2021-08-0346 minThe Craft Of Open SourceHarsha, Co-Founder @ MinIO (min.io)MinIO is the #1 cloud-native open-source object store for enterprises. In this episode, Ben caught up with Harshavardhana, the co-founder of MinIO.
2021-07-1334 minThe Craft Of Open SourceThe Founding Story of Jenkins (@jenkinsci) with the creator Kohsuke Kawaguchi and Ben Rometsch (getflagsmith)The open-source community was changed forever with the Jenkins software project. Providing hundreds of plugins to be used for project building, deployment, and automation, it is the leading open-source automation server today. To explore this even further, Ben Rometsch goes back to the beginning by sitting down with its creator, Kohsuke Kawaguchi. He tells the story of how he was motivated to design such an open-source project, how it was conceptualized, and the silly origins of its name. The two also discuss their thoughts about software concepts that start with a commercial version only for someone to build its...
2021-06-2946 minThe Craft Of Open SourceBjarne Christiansen, Co-Founder @ RealmOpen source is an ever-evolving field since technological innovation and demands will not stop as human life progresses, finding a useful open-source alternative to existing projects. This way, the work of a developer can be easier depending on the purpose they are after. Ben Rometsch talks with Bjarne Christiansen to discuss the journey of how he built Realm, which offers a mobile database that is not only developer-friendly but also a useful alternative to SQLite and CoreData. He also shares how his partnerships with MongoDB and Firebase worked for him, as well as the company’s plans to transcend in...
2021-06-1540 minThe Craft Of Open SourceKasra Bigdeli, CapRoverOne of the most important features of an open-source project is its high level of user-friendliness. Even if one has various complexities that allow for better application development or webserver management, something that's confusing and time-consuming will not be used as much by many. This is what Kasra Bigdeli had in mind when he started CapRover. He joins Ben Rometsch to share how this simple side hustle grew into an organized company, all to provide the most practical solutions to the biggest open-source projects and issues. Kasra also talks about how he addresses the never-ending requests and feedback from cl...
2021-06-0139 minThe Craft Of Open SourceOSS Capital's Vision for the Future of Open Source Software with JJ Jacks (@asynchio) and Ben Rometsch (getflagsmith)In this episode, Ben Rometsch helps unravel this category by sitting down with Joseph Jacks of OSS Capital to learn more about what the funding ecosystem looks like for commercial open source companies. JJ is a huge COSS supporter and shares why he thinks this is the best time to be building a company in this space.
2021-05-2547 minThe Craft Of Open SourceMattermost's (@Mattermost) journey from open source to commercial success with Co-Founder and CEO Ian Tien (@iantien) and Ben Rometsch (@getflagsmith)In this episode, Ben Rometsch interviews Ian Tien, the CEO and co-founder of Mattermost, which has been referred to as the open-source alternative for Slack. Ian shares their genesis story in gaming, the challenges they encountered with scaling a messaging company, the applications they find useful, and more.
2021-05-1841 minThe Craft Of Open SourceNic Hourcard, Co-Founder of QuestDB Nicolas Hourcard saw this need for a high performance time-series database and decided to co-found QuestDB. In this episode, he joins Ben Rometsch to share the genesis of this project and the problems they are trying to fix with the technology.
2021-05-0448 minThe Craft Of Open SourceVipin Sahu, WebkulThe sky's the limit when it comes to technology, so how much more when you're using open source software? Take that to your business, and you can do anything you want. Vipin Sahu built an open source B2B and B2C online marketplace to help them scale their online business. In this episode, he joins Ben Rometsch to share with us the beginning of his open-source journey and what eventually led him to create Webkul. Vipin also talks about wide-ranging topics about venturing into this business—from licensing to social entrepreneurship and more. He then sh...
2021-04-2041 minThe Craft Of Open SourceTorkel Ödegaard, Grafana Creator & Project LeadLooking for observability dashboards that have the right balance between looking good, easy to use, powerful, and intuitive? Ben Rometsch has a web application just for you. In this episode, he sits down with the creator and project lead of Grafana, Torkel Ödegaard, to talk about how he started this company that offers a monitoring observability solution built on open-source components. He takes us inside into the work they put into creating a great user interface as well as the behind-the-scenes of meeting co-founders, finding the people to finance the deals, and scaling. Talking to others thinking of building a m...
2021-04-1337 minThe Craft Of Open SourceDavid Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), Creator Of Ruby On Rails, Founder & CTO At Basecamp & HEYReleased in 2004, Ruby on Rails is an open-source web application framework written in Ruby. Created by David Heinemeier Hansson, the framework takes full advantage of the Ruby’s unique features to create a language that continues to be very approachable even after almost two decades of development. In this conversation with Ben Rometsch, David dives deep into the genesis and evolution of Ruby on Rails and talks about his other works in progress at Basecamp and HEY. He also shares his prophetic and revolutionary insights on licensing, antitrust and other issues that matter to the open-source community.
2021-03-301h 03The Craft Of Open SourceQuinn Slack, CEO & Co-Founder Of SourcegraphUniversal code search is an awesome tool that can make you a lot more efficient as a coder, but not many developers or companies use it. An open source alternative to Google Code Search, Sourcegraph is on a mission to bring this underappreciated piece of software into every developer and every company that needs it. The company’s CEO, Quinn Slack joins Ben Rometsch on the show to share how Sourcegraph works with former Google developers to replicate some of the amazing features of Google’s internal code search tool that are not offered by most of the competition. He als...
2021-03-1641 minThe Craft Of Open SourceRobin Gustafsson, CEO @ k6Companies that have an open source component usually started out as open source and then developed an enterprise version of the software later. Load testing SaaS platform, k6 approached its development the other way around – producing an interesting dynamic that has resulted to unique outcomes for the company. As CEO Robin Gustafsson relates in this conversation with Ben Rometsch, that entry into the relatively unknown territory of open source gave the k6 team a lot to argue about for some years, but it ultimately allowed them to create a business model that benefits from the best of both worlds. Inte...
2021-03-0242 minThe Craft Of Open SourceMaciej Zawadziński & Piotr Korzeniowski of Piwik PROThere is an ethical conundrum that revolves around the issue of data privacy when it comes to web analytics. Most marketers and businesses, especially the smaller ones, are naturally inclined to use Google Analytics because it offers high functionality for free. However, it does come with the price of data privacy and governments and other stakeholders are increasingly becoming aware of it. Maciej Zawadziński was among the people at the forefront of the development of Piwik (now Matomo), an open source alternative to Google Analytics that focuses on privacy. In 2013, Maciej co-launched Piwik PRO to offer support and con...
2021-02-1549 minThe Craft Of Open SourceDavid Cramer, Co-Founder and CTO, Sentry (Sentry.io)Co-Founder and CTO of Sentry, David Cramer joins Ben Rometsch on this episode to talk about his journey from a side project of 70 lines of open source code to the most widely adopted open source crash reporting platform in the world.
2021-02-0252 minThe Craft Of Open SourceHeather Meeker, Founding Partner @ OSS CapitalLegal systems for almost any industry tends to follow innovation. In open source, that lag has been even more pronounced due to the pace of change and increased complexity. OSS Capital founder, Heather Meeker, has followed the evolution of open source licensing over the course of her 25 year legal career. Sitting down with host Ben Rometsch in this episode, she describes how the legal community is coping with the ever increasing complexities and shares her opinion on the role of legal going forward. This is an extremely informative and insightful conversation for anyone that is thinking about software licensing...
2021-01-1948 minThe Craft Of Open SourceTom Moor, Founder @ Outline (GetOutline.com)Transitioning from a closed source project to open source has its own challenges. Shedding light into the process, Ben Rometsch invites Tom Moor, the founder of Outline. Outline is becoming a widely adopted knowledge-base for leading companies around the world. It has grown incredibly fast with over 10,000 stars on Github and poised to continue it's growth with recent major products in this space being sunset. Together, they talk about Tom’s journey into starting his company as a side project, choosing the right software license and the associated risk of cutting off marketing share, and figuring out a way to...
2020-12-2939 minThe Craft Of Open SourceMichael DeHaan: Founder, AnsibleAnsible was created to make automating IT infrastructure simple. In this episode, we are joined by Michael DeHaan, founder of Ansible, to take us through a wide-ranging conversation. He talks about his beginnings in the open-source community at Redhat, why he started Ansible as a side project and his thoughts on the open-source community's state. Technologies Discussed: Ansible, Redhat, VMWare, IBM, Virtualization, DNS Management, Up To Date, Chef, Puppet, Configuration Tools, Open Source, SSH, Cisco, YAML, Automation, CI/CD, GitHub, Agile, Kubernetes, Cobbler, Linux, React Native, Source Code
2020-12-1456 minThe Craft Of Open SourceUku Taht And Marko Saric: Co-Founders, PlausibleUku and Marko are the Co-Founders of Plausible...and they've never actually met in person. Plausible is an open source alternative to Google Analytics and a project that was launched in 2018. Uku was inspired to launch a project on IndieHackers and share his progress with the world. Eventually he decided to open the product up to the open source community. About 6 months ago, Uku and Marko decided to team up as co-founders, but due to the pandemic they haven't met face-to-face. Since launching the open source project in 2019, they've grown in popularity as more and more teams are looking...
2020-12-1343 minThe Craft Of Open SourcePaul Dix: Co-Founder & CTO, InfluxDBIn this episode, Paul Dix talks about the origins of InfluxDB, how they’ve built it into a massive project and where they are heading next. Paul shares great insights on how they found early product-market fit, decided to build a database as a product and why they saw a unique opportunity for their technology with the open source community. Technologies discussed: Redis, MongoDB, Rust, Influx Database, Flagsmith, DataDog, Apache, Database, JavaScript, API, Open Source, SQL, MySQL
2020-12-1147 min