Liebert: Open-source companies can monetize by building superior user experience
Florian Leibert · a16z Podcast | The Consumerization of IT · Jan 2, 2019 · at 19:08
Florian Liebert, CEO of Mesosphere, discusses business models for open-source infrastructure software alongside Maxta CEO Yoram Novak and a16z partner Peter Levine.
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“And I think where we can provide additional value that we can charge for is in, in making this open source easier to use. And coming from companies like Airbnb and Twitter, where UX is, is really essential, I think we can apply the same to open source, and I think traditionally open source hasn't been very good about UX, right? Like, I mean, if we think about the first distributions of Linux, for example, I mean, the interfaces were just horrible, and nobody wanted to use it, and Microsoft had this finished product, and I think that's really where we can actually Build some, something of value for the user And I think for that you can charge, even if the core is open”
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Leibert: Mainframes will remain core enterprise infrastructure for 20 to 30 years
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