Screaming in the Cloud How Grokability Built a Profitable Open Source Business with Jeremy Price
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Jan 6, 2026 Jeremy Price, VP of Technology at Grokability and key player behind the Snipe-IT open source project, shares insights on building a sustainable business model without VC pressure. He discusses how Grokability prioritizes product quality over explosive growth and the importance of customer relationships when they pay for software. Jeremy highlights the success of running thousands of separate installations and the joy of creating 'boring' yet profitable tools that meet real needs without succumbing to market hype.
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Pick Technology For Longevity And Value
- Evaluate new tech by whether it brings real product value and will stick around for years.
- Don't adopt trends just because they're fashionable or your developers saw them at a conference.
Boring Tech Pays The Bills
- Boring, well-established tech often wins because it reliably makes money and is maintainable.
- Legacy tools deserve respect because 'legacy' often just means 'it works and pays the bills.'
Charge For Hosting, Not Core Features
- Do not feature-gate core functionality; instead charge for hosting-costly services like dedicated instances.
- Offer backups and upgrades as hosted services rather than hiding essential features from the open source project.