Businesses starting out typically have an exit strategy in mind. The strategy may be to get bought out by a larger company or transition the company to investors, via say an Initial Public Offering. How well businesses plan for these exit strategies, even if they are a long way off, determines how smooth the process will be.
Similarly, open source projects need to think about their exit strategy options - whether they are about to launch or have been out there for a while. As a project maintainer, should you donate your project to a foundation? If so, which one? Should you transition the project to another open source organization? If so, when, and how? What about creating a business around your open source project as a pathway to that exit?
In this talk, Christine will explore some common exit strategies for open source projects and ways that you can position your project to make that transition go smoothly. Some of the topics Christine will explore include project naming, trademarks, community growth tactics, industry partnerships, and open source business models. By the end of the talk, you should have the resources and tools to help you be more intentional about how you run your open source project.
About Christine Abernathy
Christine leads the Open Source Programs Office at F5. Christine joined from Facebook (now Meta Platforms) where she was instrumental in growing their open source presence. Prior roles included Developer Advocate Parse, Facebook Platform and Partner Engineer, Mobile. Before Facebook, Christine headed up engineering at Mshift, a mobile banking software provider, delivering iOS/Android apps and mobile browser-based products. Prior experiences include co-founding Clickmarks, a mobile and enterprise middleware provider.
