How Do You Build a Business Around Open Source?

How Do You Build a Business Around Open Source?

What happens when you set off to build a sustainable business around open source software? In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Lucie Lesage from Jeci, the French company behind the open-source document management platform Pristy. Lucie explains how Jeci grew from one developer providing Alfresco services into a team building its own open-source product. We discuss finding the first customers, selling software before every feature was finished, setting prices, earning trust, and learning to let other developers contribute to something that began as one person’s code. We also explore why Jeci chose Collabora Online for document editing, how open source gives customers confidence that their software can continue even if a supplier disappears, and why “free software” does not mean software that costs nothing. Topics include: • Growing from services into a product company • Winning and supporting the first customers • Pricing open-source software • Building Pristy on top of Alfresco • Why Jeci chose Collabora Online • Free as in freedom—not free of cost • Open-source and French-first business principles • Pristy Marchés and future product plans 🔔 Subscribe for more discussions on open-source tech! iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD [https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD] RSS: https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/ [https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/] The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation. 00:00 Intro 01:01 How did you first get into OSS? 01:53 How did that shape how you think about software today? 02:28 What is Jeci? 03:03 This wasn’t the original direction? 04:14 Are you a product or services company? 04:57 What was difficult about the early days? 05:28 What drove the change? 06:03 What was COVID like? 07:28 Is that when you discovered Collabora Online? 08:19 Did you consider alternatives? 09:12 Transitioning from a single developer to a team 10:09 How did you pitch the new idea? 12:11 Pricing difficulties 13:30 How to find customers? 15:35 How are things growing now?! 17:05 Free vs. freedom 20:16 Changes to Alfresco and Nuxeo 21:46 Lucie’s experience leading marketing 26:26 Is everything on-premise at Jeci? 27:23 Future plans!

How Events Help Build Open Source Communities

Open source doesn’t grow through code alone — it also grows through communities. And communities are built when people meet, share ideas, and sometimes argue over coffee in conference hallways. In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Eirini Athanasopoulou from Nextcloud about the human side of open source: events, community, storytelling, and what it takes to bring distributed people together in real life. Eirini shares her journey from literature and TEDx in Greece to organising international events at Nextcloud, including Enterprise Days, the Nextcloud Summit, and the Community Conference. We talk about why in-person events still matter, how open-source events differ from generic tech conferences, and why event management is “project management with a little bit of fun and magic.” And yes — there is also a pizza disaster story. 🔔 Subscribe for more discussions on open-source tech! iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD [https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD] RSS: https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/ [https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/] The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation. 00:00 Intro 03:48 From Greece to Berlin 04:39 From volunteering to work 06:18 What are the different Nextcloud events? 09:02 What about hybrid/online events? 10:25 What are the numbers? 13:40 Why should we come? 15:27 Any amusing stories? 16:58 What keeps you awake before an event? 19:17 What does Richard enjoy about events? 21:28 How do you measure success?

Germany's Digital Experiment - Can Governments Build Their Own Tech Stack?

Germany isn’t just talking about digital sovereignty — it’s building it. 🇩🇪 80,000+ users pilot scheme 🧩 8 vendors, one platform 🚀 Federal rollout coming in 2027 Inside ZenDiS and openDesk — and what it really takes to assemble a sovereign digital workplace with open source. In this episode, Richard Brock is joined by Victor Moster (ZenDiS) and Thorsten Behrens (Collabora Productivity). 🔔 Subscribe for more discussions on open-source tech! iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD [https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD] RSS: https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/ [https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/] The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

Customers Deserve a Choice: Cloud or On-Prem

In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Johan Bernhardsson from Redpill Linpro, one of the Nordic region’s leading open-source consultancies. Johan shares what real-world migrations look like: from replacing aging NAS drives with Nextcloud to building GDPR-sensitive collaboration platforms, and helping organizations move at their own pace. We discuss: -Why “cloud-first” often means “no real choice” -How open-source migrations actually begin -Why user experience matters more than features -The growing demand for on-prem and sovereign deployments -And why digital change is still slow — but accelerating If digital sovereignty is more than a slogan, this is what it looks like on the ground. 🔔 Subscribe for more discussions on open-source tech! iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD [https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD] RSS: https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/ [https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/] The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

"If It Has a CPU, We Can Run It" - How Collabora Online Escaped the Browser

In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Thorsten Behrens, Tor Lillqvist & Jan Holesovsky – the three principal engineers behind the new Collabora Office release, about what it really means to move a complex application from the browser to the desktop. They explain how Collabora Online has been transformed into a native desktop app that runs entirely locally while preserving the same user interface and architecture, and why this approach is fundamentally different from simply wrapping a web app. The conversation explores the technical and conceptual challenges of cross-platform software, the limitations of browser environments, lessons learned from earlier mobile ports, and the importance of reusing a shared core across web, desktop, and mobile. Along the way, the engineers reflect on portability, performance, security, and developer experience, revealing why building truly cross-platform software in many cases is difficult – and how they succeeded. 🔔 [https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f514.png] Subscribe for more discussions on open-source tech! iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD [https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD] RSS: https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/ [https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/] The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.