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Hi Michael, YC-funded companies are known to be large-scale consumers of free and open source software. They are able to leverage the competitive advantage pro

Hi Michael, YC-funded companies are known to be large-scale consumers of free and open source software. They are able to leverage the competitive advantage provided by this digital infrastructure to build successful, high valuation businesses. Some of those companies have gone on to make great contributions to the Open Source community themselves. Would YC ever consider setting up a fund for the builders and maintainers of the infrastructure that your companies depend upon?

tylermenezes 10y ago
Awesome and well-reasoned question!
- jdorfman 10y ago
  Thanks! The right opportunity finally came. =)
pedalpete 10y ago
I may be a bit dense here, but who are the 'builders and maintainers of the infrastructure'? Can you give an example? I'm thinking Docker, GitLab, NPM are both in some ways doing both the development of their businesses, and maintaining the infrastructure and open-sourcing their code. Are these not the sorts of examples you're thinking of? Does this require a separate fund?
- Alex3917 10y ago
  > 'builders and maintainers of the infrastructure'? Python, Django, Postgres, PyPy, Rest Framework... I don't want to just list out all the dependencies we're using, but I'm guessing at least a simple majority of all the page views from YC startups involve Python.
- jdorfman 10y ago
  That is a great question. @Alex3917 pretty much nailed it but I do have another example. On April 7, 2014, CVE-2014-0160 aka Heartbleed was publicly disclosed. At the time, 66% of websites used OpenSSL (via Netcraft). Also, OpenSSL had 1 full-time engineer, and only a few volunteers. Yearly donations were about $2,000. 17 days after Heartbleed Jim Zemlin from the Linux Foundation as well as thirteen companies stepped up to the plate and created the Core Infrastructure Initiative and pledged to donate $100,000 a year for 3 years to help prevent the next Heartbleed. The point is this, Open Source isn't free. Docker, GitLab and other 'open-core' businesses stand on the shoulder of giants. If they raise a round of fundraising or whatever Press Release hits the wire, they get praise (which is fine, I love it). But the only time a project like the OpenSSL project gets press is when something goes wrong which I don't think is fair to them. We can keep being reactive or we can start being proactive. I believe YC has the capital and influence to change this thinking of Open Source doesn't cost anything.

tylermenezes 10y ago

Awesome and well-reasoned question!

jdorfman 10y ago
Thanks! The right opportunity finally came. =)

pedalpete 10y ago

I may be a bit dense here, but who are the 'builders and maintainers of the infrastructure'? Can you give an example? I'm thinking Docker, GitLab, NPM are both in some ways doing both the development of their businesses, and maintaining the infrastructure and open-sourcing their code. Are these not the sorts of examples you're thinking of? Does this require a separate fund?

Alex3917 10y ago
> 'builders and maintainers of the infrastructure'? Python, Django, Postgres, PyPy, Rest Framework... I don't want to just list out all the dependencies we're using, but I'm guessing at least a simple majority of all the page views from YC startups involve Python.
jdorfman 10y ago
That is a great question. @Alex3917 pretty much nailed it but I do have another example. On April 7, 2014, CVE-2014-0160 aka Heartbleed was publicly disclosed. At the time, 66% of websites used OpenSSL (via Netcraft). Also, OpenSSL had 1 full-time engineer, and only a few volunteers. Yearly donations were about $2,000. 17 days after Heartbleed Jim Zemlin from the Linux Foundation as well as thirteen companies stepped up to the plate and created the Core Infrastructure Initiative and pledged to donate $100,000 a year for 3 years to help prevent the next Heartbleed. The point is this, Open Source isn't free. Docker, GitLab and other 'open-core' businesses stand on the shoulder of giants. If they raise a round of fundraising or whatever Press Release hits the wire, they get praise (which is fine, I love it). But the only time a project like the OpenSSL project gets press is when something goes wrong which I don't think is fair to them. We can keep being reactive or we can start being proactive. I believe YC has the capital and influence to change this thinking of Open Source doesn't cost anything.