Venture Capitalist Tim Chen on the Nuances of Founding an Open Source Startup

The Business of Open Source

Tim Chen is a Partner at Essence VC and also the Co-Host of the Open Source Startup Podcast. Through these channels, he has the opportunity to speak with a broad variety of open source startups. Throughout our conversation, we explore the patterns that Tim sees in the open source startup space. Tim talked about how too many founders take the decision to build an open source company too lightly and the path that he would take if he were to start a venture-backed open source startup tomorrow. We also discuss the different monetization models of open-source startups and the true business value of an open source project.

Highlights:

• Tim introduces himself and describes his role at Essence VC as well as his work as Co-Host of the Open Source Startup Podcast (00:22)
• The common patterns that Tim sees having worked with so many open source startups (02:25)
• Tim describes the landscape of open source and how it varies from open source projects to venture-backed, open source companies (06:48)
• What path Tim would take if he were to start a venture-backed, open source startup tomorrow (09:31)
• How Tim views different monetization models and their potential profitability (17:29)
• Tim’s views on the pros and cons of an open-core model (20:34)
• The business value of an open source project according to Tim (24:47)
• How Tim’s evaluation and investing tactics have changed as he’s worked with more open source startups (31:58)
• Where listeners can find more information about Tim and learn more about his work (37:47)

Links:

Tim

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timchen
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tnachen
• Company: https://www.essencevc.fund/