Finding Unexpected Product-Market Fit with Ian Tien

The Business of Open Source

Ian Tien, CEO and Co-Founder of Mattermost, joins me to talk about how Mattermost went from being a video game company to an open-source messaging platform that provides collaboration for developers and other mission-critical teams.

In this episode, Ian and I discuss the reality of product-led growth in open-source companies, Ian’s perspective on open source moving towards platform-based solutions, and the advice he would give to other open-source founders.

Highlights:

• Ian introduces himself and the Mattermost open-source project (00:45)
• The use cases Ian sees for Mattermost (05:17)
• Ian takes us through the origin story of Mattermost and how it went from being a video game company to an open-source messaging solution (08:59)
• The role open source played in the success of Mattermost (15:07)
• Ian’s perspective on open source moving towards platform based solutions (20:22)
• Does Ian think the product-led growth model of “If you build it, they will come” is realistic, and how can that mentality lead to success? (27:34)
• The advice Ian would give other open-source founders (28:33)

Links:

Ian

• Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iantien/
• Company: https://www.mattermost.com