Episode 247 — Chad Whitacre on the Open Source Pledge  ## Metadata - Author: [[Sustain]] - Full Title: Episode 247 — Chad Whitacre on the Open Source Pledge - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/d4f368a7-f95e-49a5-9dec-856324364f27 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - Intro Summary: Sentry, originating as an open source side project in 2008, has evolved into a successful startup, achieving significant milestones such as $100 million ARR and 100,000 cloud subscribers. The company maintains a strong commitment to open source, driven by its founders, who have fostered a culture of support for open source maintainers from the top down. Over the past three years, Sentry has implemented a structured funding program for open source dependencies, significantly increasing donations from $155,000 in 2021, to $260,000 in 2022, and reaching $500,000 in 2023. For the upcoming year, Sentry plans to allocate a budget of $750,000 for open source support. However, there is a recognition that while Sentry contributes substantially, it is just one of many companies reliant on open source software, highlighting the larger need for organized support across the industry. Transcript: Speaker 2 Hello and welcome to Sustain, the podcast where we talk about sustaining open source for the long haul. Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How long is that haul? Like how long is this road really going on for? Really excited to talk to our guests today. Before I introduce them, I want to make sure you know who the voices are on this podcast. I am of course your host, Richard Lettere. That's how you pronounce my name. And I'm joined today by the illustrious and not illustrated Errol Fox. Errol, how are you doing? Speaker 3 I'm doing good. It's been a while since I've been on a podcast, I think. Speaker 2 It has been a while, but it's always a pleasure, nay, a privilege. So great to have you here today. And we are joined by longtime guest and previous co-founder of the entire Sustain Movement, Chad Whitaker. Chad, how are you doing? Hello, hello. Speaker 1 I'm doing great and I'm doing better now that I'm with you. Speaker 2 So you've been working on open source for a long time. You are the head of open source at Century. You've formerly been a lot of cool stuff with Radopay and Sustain and been around. But Century is of course a large commercial offering. They're a company that needs to make money and do cool stuff. At the same time, you've somehow managed to convince the higher ups at Century. I don't know how you've done this. It's got to involve illicit activities. They should fund open source, which is cool. So we've had you on before to talk about donating like half a million to open source. I think that was 2022. Yes. Speaker 1 A tiny bit of history if I can jump in. So Century started life in 2008 as an open source side project. It wasn't until 2015 that it became a startup. David and Chris, the two founders, took venture capital and started hiring their friends to work on Sentry with them. So that was 2015. And since then has been growing as a startup. Recently, we announced 100 million ARR and 100,000 cloud subscribers. So often running, we're now at about 350 employees. I joined, I'm coming up on four years at Century, which is honestly the longest I've ever been at one company apart from Git tip, Gratipay, that you referenced earlier, which doesn't Count since it was my own. David and Chris have always been supporters of open source going back to even before Century was a real company. And when I joined three and a half years ago, David was like, Chad, help us get organized. And so I put together a comprehensive funding program for our open source dependencies. And I do want to give the shout out to David Kramer and to Melin, our CEO and to even our board. I mean, everybody at the company from the top down is super supportive. You know, open source is really a core part of Sentry's company culture and core part of Sentry's self-understanding identity. And the leadership from the top down is very committed to supporting source, sustaining open source maintainers, which makes my job easy. It's like, Chad, go give money to open source. So 2021 was the first kind of real program we put together. We gave away $155,000. The next year was $260,000 in 2022. The half million you're talking about was last year, 23, when we gave away, yeah, half a million dollars in 2023. So October is kind of when we land our program. And our budget this year, we're not going to a million to disappoint, we're not doubling again, we're going to do 750 this year's our budget. But really, the bigger picture this year is okay, century, we've done this program for three years now. And it's been great there's not nearly enough zeros at the end of that number it's great that sentry is able to do what it's able to do but at the end of the day century is just one of many many Companies throughout. Our whole civilization that depend on open source software. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/056850f9-6cd7-429c-bf3d-da8a6d932d1b)) - Episode AI notes 1. Chad Whitacre emphasizes Sentry's evolution from an open source side project in 2008 to a successful startup with significant milestones, including $100 million ARR and 100,000 cloud subscribers. 2. Sentry's founders have cultivated a top-down culture of support for open source maintainers, which supports the company's strong commitment to the open source community. 3. Over the past three years, Sentry has significantly increased its funding for open source dependencies, boosting donations from $155,000 in 2021 to a projected $750,000 in 2024. 4. Whitacre notes the importance of collective support within the industry, acknowledging that Sentry's contributions are just a small part of the broader need for organized backing of open source projects. 5. Investing in open source is integral to a company's brand marketing strategy, akin to how major brands like Coca-Cola present their identities and values. 6. Aligning a company's brand values with open source sustainability can enhance brand identity and loyalty within the developer community. 7. The OSS Pledge encourages businesses to contribute $2,000 per developer annually, creating a collective support system while allowing for distinct brand development. 8. Whitacre discusses the value of documenting open source contributions, reinforcing brand integrity while showcasing a commitment to the open source ecosystem. 9. Companies are encouraged to balance extensive contributions with maintaining their brand identity, positioning themselves as leaders in the tech community. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/06feb27a-912b-4d45-975e-f0896dcd91e9)) - Investing in Open Source: Brand Marketing and Collective Support Strategy Summary: Investing in open source forms a crucial part of a company's brand marketing strategy, equating to how brands like Red Bull and Coca-Cola promote their identity and values beyond just their products. For a company, aligning its brand values with open source and developer sustainability enhances its identity within the developer community and fosters brand loyalty. Companies can engage in open source initiatives like the OSS Pledge, which encourages firms to contribute $2,000 per developer annually, creating a collective support system while maintaining distinct brand identities. The metric of dollars per developer serves to establish a fair payment framework across various company sizes. This initiative not only showcases commitment to open source but also enables companies to document and share their contributions publicly, reinforcing their brand without diluting it. Companies must strike a balance between contribution and brand integrity, qualifying membership through significant investment while leveraging joint efforts to enhance their reputation in the tech ecosystem. By prioritizing direct contributions to open source, businesses can position themselves as leaders in the community, fostering growth and productivity among developers reliant on these projects. Transcript: Speaker 1 Another angle on this, from Sentry's point of view, the investment in open source, I'll just go ahead and say it, this is brand marketing for us. Sentry has reached that point where we're a large enough company, the way that marketing happens at larger companies, it's brand marketing. It's what does extreme sports have to do with energy drinks? Nothing everything, but Red Bull is like out there sponsoring all the X games and whatever is this kind of thing. It's, is Coca-Cola even selling Coca-Cola anymore? You know, like they're selling red and they're selling a feeling, you know, it's like FIFA and whatever, right? So for a century, our primary brand values are around open source and particularly developer sustainability in open source. And then a couple other things too. So we've got a big kind of security privacy focus. And then the third one for us is honestly just cool swag. Like we just sponsored a basketball game at Lara con. Like we just get to do these shenanigans. So we have like, yeah, fun stuff like that. So open source is again, core part of Centuries company culture, and really a core part of Centuries brand identity at the end of the day. And so there's sort of like cynical takes on it, but then also just sort of realistic takes on it. This is how these things happen. So yeah, so that's the rationale for our leadership, for our investors, for our board on why investing in open source makes sense for Sentry. It's because Sentry is selling a product to developers and developers love open source and we love open source and it's part of building that brand. Speaker 2 My immediate follow-on question, say take something like OSS Pledge. The idea is to get companies to pledge $2,000 per developer in-house towards open source. Hey, let's all work together to fund the ecosystem. Won't that dilute your brand? Because you're asking everyone else to make this their brand as well? Speaker 1 No, because there's a minimum to get in the door. We developed this metric called dollars per developer as a way to kind of reason about payments to open source maintainers across companies of different sizes. So, Century, you know, I think we count 140 developers or something like this. And another company, so it was actually just today, just an hour or two ago, that we pushed the button and onboarded our first two members, company members, for the open source pledge. So we'll see when this airs and how many members we've got onboarded by then. But Sentry and then Astral, astral.sh, which is a kind of Python tooling written in Rust and a billion company around that, Charlie Marsh and Co. Sentry and Astral are the two that have joined. Sentry's got 140 developers. I think, you know, we can look it up. Astral's much earlier in their growth. So they're, call it five or ten, right? So we look at dollars per developer. So last year, Sentry spent $500,000. We had 132 developers. We never worked out to, I think, $3,700 per developer. And then Astral is paying like $3250 per dev. So we're working with this dollars per developer, meaning, how many developers do you have on staff? Because they're the ones that benefit from open source the most. They're the ones whom open source makes more productive. They're the ones that would have to go write stuff themselves or buy a comparable product or whatever in order to do their work. Yeah. So we look at dollars per dev as the metric. What I'm trying to say is the number to get in the door is $2,000 per dev. So we're trying to say, look, anything that any company gives to open source is great. To be part of this club, you need to pay $2,000 per developer on staff per year. And then you get to say, it's like 1% for the planet kind of thing, right? It's like, we're going for receipts. We're going for... So, okay, so A, go pay $2,000, at least $2,000 per dev per year to open source maintainers and foundations. Then publish a blog post once a year that tells us what you did and gives us receipts. And then we're gonna pull those in and put that on osspledge.com. Right, so that's the way that we end up not diluting our brand because it's like, well, the other companies that are with us in this are also doing significant amounts to open source projects. Yeah, so I kind of say like that's your membership dues at the club, you know, which gets you the privilege of paying more at the club for dinner. You know what I mean? It's a fine balance. We've actually talked a lot about pricing that like that's a big conversation to have and say the numbers get pretty big when you talk to larger companies and it becomes a big ask. And then it's century being seen as yeah, I mean for us to be leading this is I mean, it's we're here for right? Let's put up a shut up. Let's get this done. Let's quit beating around the bush and solve this problem for once. Going back to what you're saying earlier. Is there an actual destination we're getting towards on this road? Speaker 3 No, I love it. 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