The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source Selling SDKs in the era of many Claudes (Interview)
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Feb 19, 2026 Steve Ruiz, founder of tldraw and builder of a high-performance web canvas and SDK. He talks about turning a free whiteboard into a commercial SDK, pricing and licensing experiments, how AI agents change product and team dynamics, internal tooling as a force multiplier, and embedding spatial AI and agents into canvases for new use cases.
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Negotiate Early To Discover Pricing
- If you sell an SDK, validate pricing and demand by negotiating early custom deals instead of publishing fixed plans.
- Steve recommends iterating pricing through conversations to learn value and raise prices quickly.
License Changed After Rewriting For 1.0
- Tealdraw started with permissive releases but intentionally planned license changes at 1.0 to pursue sustainability.
- The company rewrote the project and switched licenses as they prepared to commercialize the SDK.
Use License Keys To Find Prospects
- Require license keys for production to identify adopters and enable sales outreach.
- Steve says offering free hobby keys and trials balances discovery with capturing commercial leads.