From Open-Source, to Open-Core, to Cloud - Open Core Summit 2023 - Pierre Burgy
- 1. From Open-Source, To Open-Core, To Cloud. Pierre Burgy Co-Founder & CEO, Strapi
- 2. @pierre_burgy Pierre Burgy Co-founder & CEO @ Strapi
- 3. Strapi Open-Source Headless CMS GitHub Stars 60K Contributors 1,000 12M Downloads
- 4. The Business Model Dilemma.
- 5. It all started with Open…Source
- 6. The Launch October 1st, 2015
- 8. Studying Timeline First Commit on GitHub Studying Full-Time $1M Pre-Seed $4M Seed $10M Series A
- 9. Studying Timeline First Commit on GitHub Studying Full-Time $1M Pre-Seed $4M Seed $10M Series A $0 revenue
- 10. Open Core vs. SaaS
- 11. Open Core vs. SaaS
- 12. ● Mature competitors in the SaaS market ● We were (almost) the only self-hosted Headless CMS ● We had lots of requests for SSO and RBAC ● Easier to build Why Open Core?
- 13. Open-Core
- 14. The Launch
- 15. Studying Studying Full-Time $1M Pre-Seed $4M Seed $10M Series A Open-Core Enterprise Edition Timeline First Sales rep First Commit on GitHub VP of Sales
- 16. Studying Studying Full-Time $1M Pre-Seed $4M Seed $10M Series A Open-Core Enterprise Edition Timeline First Sales rep First Commit on GitHub VP of Sales
- 17. Studying Studying Full-Time $1M Pre-Seed $4M Seed $10M Series A Open-Core Enterprise Edition Timeline First Sales rep First Commit on GitHub VP of Sales $30M Series B
- 18. Challenges Wins ● It brought us to Series B ● No infrastructure to manage ● Enterprise = big deals ● Focus on only 1 business model ● Enterprise Edition in the open, with one single codebase ● Confusion between free and paid ● Usage tracking is difficult (which makes renewals, expansion, and Customer Success harder) ● From individuals to enterprises ● Sales (and procurement processes) intensive ● Requires specific roles: Field Sales, Solution Architects, etc.
- 19. “I love Strapi but I do not want to manage servers.” One user among many
- 22. Studying Studying Full-Time $1M Pre-Seed $4M Seed $10M Series A $30M Series B Open-Core Enterprise Edition Timeline First Sales rep VP of Sales First Commit on GitHub SaaS Strapi Cloud
- 23. Studying Studying Full-Time $1M Pre-Seed $4M Seed $10M Series A SaaS Strapi Cloud $30M Series B Open-Core Enterprise Edition Timeline First Sales rep VP of Sales First Commit on GitHub
- 24. Studying Studying Full-Time $1M Pre-Seed $4M Seed $10M Series A SaaS Strapi Cloud $30M Series B Open-Core Enterprise Edition Timeline First Sales rep VP of Sales First Commit on GitHub
- 25. Challenges Wins ● Shorter time to value ● Not only sell features but compute ● Companies are more used to pay for hosted software ● Flywheel: increases usage and revenue ● Better suited for self-serve, which results in more efficiency ● Enlarges total addressable market ● Requires a set of new skills: SREs, PLG marketers, reactive CS, etc. ● It is a second product to build and maintain ● Might require some architecture changes
- 27. Navigating through many different motions
- 28. Navigating through many different motions
- 29. Navigating through many different motions
- 30. Navigating through many different motions
- 31. Navigating through many different motions
- 32. Navigating through many different motions
- 33. Self-Serve Sales-Driven Pros ● More efficient ● Higher velocity ● Easily scalable ● Higher ACV ● Helps collecting feedback Cons ● Lower Retention ● Lower ACV ● Capital intensive ● Requires strong differentiators Comments Great fit for SaaS Great fit for Open Core Self-Serve vs. Sales-Driven
- 34. Thoughts ● Self-Serve and Sales-Led are complementary. ● But, you must start with only one. ● Going from Sales-Led to Self-Serve is HARD. ● Start with Self-Serve, especially if SaaS. ● Founders and a Product Advocate as first Sales Reps.
- 35. Pricing
- 36. 3Cs framework
- 37. Conclusion
- 38. Start with SaaS. Is your ICP the Enterprise (ex. cybersecurity)? Are you in a very crowded SaaS market? Is open-source your only differentiator? If yes, think about Open Core. Otherwise: Start with SaaS. What business model should I pick?
- 39. ● Start selling early. ● Do something users want. ● Default to SaaS. ● Default to Self-Serve. ● Focus on ONE model only. ● Say no, say no, say no to the rest. Conclusion
- 40. 2 1 3 Conclusion
- 41. Resources