Open source business models must evolve past ”rug pulls”

Adam Jacob is CEO and co-founder of System Initiative, an infrastructure automation software startup that came out of stealth in 2023. Previously, he was co-founder and CTO of Chef Software, which also focused on infrastructure automation, and was sold to Progress Software in 2020. Chef had roots in open source, and underwent a license change in 2019; Jacob has taken a different tack with his new company.

In this episode, he discusses his "speed run" through the various permutations of open source business models during his career, and how the industry can use the lessons learned by a generation of open product entrepreneurs to improve open source-based business sustainability.