Max Howell is the CEO of Tea, a revolutionary open-source project that is seeking to help open-source contributors get paid for their work through crypto. Throughout our conversation, Max explains how he’s created some prolific open-source projects but was still unable to monetize them to the point where open source could be his full-time job, and how that provided the inspiration for Tea. Max and I discuss the importance of re-framing open-source projects in business terms of value, and not simply referring to supporting projects as charity work, and Max also shares valuable insights into the world of open-source crypto development.
Highlights:
- Intro (00:00)
- I introduce Max, the CEO of tea.xyz, and he explains his career background and how he started Tea (01:00)
- Max and I discuss the shift that open source needs to make from relying on charity to speaking in business and value terms (09:39)
- Max describes how Tea is representing the existing value of open source and translating it into monetary form (12:32)
- The administrative challenges of paying for open-source tools that are business-critical and how Tea helps solve them (14:36)
- Tea’s business strategy for monetizing their own open-source project (18:05)
- How Max’s goal of being able to work on the open-source projects he loves full time has played out with Tea (24:06)
- Max describes how he successfully pitched Tea to investors (25:21)
- Tea’s relationship with the rest of the crypto industry (27:32)
- The biggest challenge Max and his team are working on at the moment (29:06)
- What Max wishes he would have done differently and what he’s learned from the mistakes he’s made (31:59)
- Where you can go to learn more about Tea and connect with Max (38:53)
Links:
Max
What is The Business of Open Source?
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.