The developer's guide to making money in the open-source galaxy
summary
A Java library called JobRunr becomes a paid product: a distributed persistent job scheduler that runs with one jar, uses existing Postgres/Oracle storage, auto-retries jobs, and ships a dashboard included; integrates with Spring Boot, Micronaut and Quarkus. Development timeline: launched Apr 2020, first pro sale Sep 2020, early revenue €500 after nine months, December 2022 €80k, 2023 €300k, 2024 €580k, ~€940k 2025 revenue. Later additions: licenseed pro tier, panic support, performance tuning (10x on some DBs), and carbon-aware scheduling.
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chapters (18)
- 0:00Freelancing to open-source success
- 2:12Early career inspiration
- 5:27Switching to .NET and Hangfire
- 7:19E-invoicing and JobRunner
- 11:52Quitting job to launch JobRunner
- 13:37First paying customer challenges
- 15:25Revenue struggles and project maintenance
- 18:38First US customer and visibility
- 20:25Making a living from open-source?
- 22:54JobRunner in ThoughtWorks Radar
- 24:03Co-founder experiment
- 25:50Medical imaging crisis fixes
- 28:00Pricing and procurement battles
- 31:37Licensing disputes and hiring
- 33:07Near burnout and balance in 2024
- 34:56Performance tuning and scheduling
- 37:24Growing team and marketing
- 39:13Conclusion
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