Open source as a startup at GitHub Nova 2021

GitHub Nova is a 3-day event exclusively for GitHub Stars.

A 3-day exclusive event for GitHub Stars - bringing the Stars and the GitHub product teams closer together to feel connected and to celebrate the tremendous things the Stars do in the open source community. At Nova, the Stars and product teams will dive deep into GitHub features, have in-depth technical discussions, see GitHub’s vision, and share and learn from each other.

As a startup founder and open source contributor, my interest lies on the intersection of tech entrepreneurship and FOSS. GitHub invited me speak at Nova on the topic “Open source as a startup”, where I shared Pabio’s journey building Upptime and my background in open source in this 30-min talk.

I reflect on journey — from building an open edtech platform for K-12 students (Class Rebels), to an open source browser extension for people with dyslexia that became an accessibility technology company with several disabled-friendly products (Oswald Labs), to starting a Y Combinator-funded company in a completely different space (Pabio, furniture rental with interior design), and building and launching an open source project with 10k+ stars (Upptime). I also discuss how Upptime works using GitHub Actions, Issues, and Pages, open source monetization options, the benefits of investing in open source as a startup, and the value of open source software.

A recording is available on https://youtu.be/RCaGjMjiwpU.