{"podcast":{"title":"The Business of Open Source","slug":"the-business-of-open-source-1246517","podcast_index_feed_id":1246517,"rss_url":"https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-business-of-open-source","website_url":"https://www.emilyomier.com/podcast","image_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/jWinFBOdCsk_uouTFPIaKFoiPINazJ2uKEubLYthLNg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzEwNTI5LzE2NTY1/MTIwMDAtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.jpg","author":"Emily Omier","episode_count":276,"summary":"Whether you're a founder of an open source startup, an open source maintainer or just an open source enthusiast, join host Emily Omier as she talks to the people who work at the intersection of open source and business, from startup founders to leaders of open source giants and all the people who help open source startups grow.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T06:17:59.137470+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-of-open-source-1246517"},"episode":{"title":"How Technology Decisions Impact Growth with Misha Bragin","slug":"how-technology-decisions-impact-growth-with-misha-bragin","published_at":"2025-03-05T11:11:53+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-of-open-source-1246517/how-technology-decisions-impact-growth-with-misha-bragin","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-of-open-source-1246517","url":"https://share.transistor.fm/s/aab47f99","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/media.transistor.fm/aab47f99/41f94da4.mp3","summary":"This week on The Business of Open Source, I spoke with Misha Bragin, co-founder and CEO of NetBird. This was also the first episode I recorded in 2025, which gives you an idea of how far in advance I’m recording episodes. NetBird has an interesting origin story — it came out of an original idea to make a hardware product, but as Misha and his co-founder were starting to work out the realities of manufacturing, they realized that they would be better off building a software company. Here were some of the take aways from the conversation: Sometimes your users want to pay you! Misha explained that before there was a commercial offering, some open source users proactively reached out asking for one — because they understood that in order for the company to be viable, it needed to have revenue. Just because you get crickets at first doesn’t mean your project sucks. When NetBird’s open source project was first released, it made zero splash. The reality of working in a proprietary piece of software, you can do things quick and dirty. *Obviously you shouldn’t, but let’s face it a lot of people do. But when your code is open, it is also a part of your communication strategy! If you push out code that’s not tested or that’s not well done, you risk reputation damage even if the software works exactly as it should. Misha talked about how choosing Auth0 as an authentication service was a mistake — not because it is a bad service, but because it was not appropriate for their target audience, who are self-hosting. This is a very good reminder of how sometimes choosing the best technology for the job can backfire; you also have to take into account who the target user is and if they are going to be repelled by the choice you’re making. Struggling to figure out how to balance your proj…","meta_description":"This week on The Business of Open Source, I spoke with Misha Bragin, co-founder and CEO of NetBird. This was also the first episode I recorded in 2025, wh…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2142,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-business-of-open-source-1246517/episodes/how-technology-decisions-impact-growth-with-misha-bragin/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-of-open-source-1246517/how-technology-decisions-impact-growth-with-misha-bragin.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}