Pierre's Burgy presentation from the Open Core Summit 2023. From Open-Source, to Open-Core, to Cloud

1. From Open-Source,
To Open-Core,
To Cloud.
Pierre Burgy
Co-Founder & CEO, Strapi

2. @pierre_burgy
Pierre Burgy
Co-founder & CEO @ Strapi

3. Strapi
Open-Source Headless CMS
GitHub Stars
60K
Contributors
1,000
12M Downloads

4. The Business Model Dilemma.

5. It all started with
Open…Source

6. The Launch
October 1st, 2015

7. Studying
Timeline
First Commit
on GitHub

8. Studying
Timeline
First Commit
on GitHub
Studying Full-Time
$1M
Pre-Seed
$4M
Seed
$10M
Series A

9. Studying
Timeline
First Commit
on GitHub
Studying Full-Time
$1M
Pre-Seed
$4M
Seed
$10M
Series A
$0
revenue

10. Open Core vs. SaaS

11. Open Core vs. SaaS

12. ● Mature competitors in the SaaS market
● We were (almost) the only self-hosted Headless CMS
● We had lots of requests for SSO and RBAC
● Easier to build
Why Open Core?

13. Open-Core

14. The Launch

15. Studying Studying Full-Time
$1M
Pre-Seed
$4M
Seed
$10M
Series A
Open-Core
Enterprise Edition
Timeline
First Sales rep
First Commit
on GitHub
VP of Sales

16. Studying Studying Full-Time
$1M
Pre-Seed
$4M
Seed
$10M
Series A
Open-Core
Enterprise Edition
Timeline
First Sales rep
First Commit
on GitHub
VP of Sales

17. Studying Studying Full-Time
$1M
Pre-Seed
$4M
Seed
$10M
Series A
Open-Core
Enterprise Edition
Timeline
First Sales rep
First Commit
on GitHub
VP of Sales
$30M
Series B

18. Challenges
Wins
● It brought us to Series B
● No infrastructure to manage
● Enterprise = big deals
● Focus on only 1 business model
● Enterprise Edition in the open, with one
single codebase
● Confusion between free and paid
● Usage tracking is difficult (which
makes renewals, expansion, and
Customer Success harder)
● From individuals to enterprises
● Sales (and procurement processes)
intensive
● Requires specific roles: Field Sales,
Solution Architects, etc.

19. “I love Strapi but I do not want to
manage servers.”
One user among many

20. Accelerating with
Cloud/SaaS

21. Releasing Strapi Cloud

22. Studying Studying Full-Time
$1M
Pre-Seed
$4M
Seed
$10M
Series A
$30M
Series B
Open-Core
Enterprise Edition
Timeline
First Sales rep
VP of Sales
First Commit
on GitHub
SaaS
Strapi Cloud

23. Studying Studying Full-Time
$1M
Pre-Seed
$4M
Seed
$10M
Series A
SaaS
Strapi Cloud
$30M
Series B
Open-Core
Enterprise Edition
Timeline
First Sales rep
VP of Sales
First Commit
on GitHub

24. Studying Studying Full-Time
$1M
Pre-Seed
$4M
Seed
$10M
Series A
SaaS
Strapi Cloud
$30M
Series B
Open-Core
Enterprise Edition
Timeline
First Sales rep
VP of Sales
First Commit
on GitHub

25. Challenges
Wins
● Shorter time to value
● Not only sell features but compute
● Companies are more used to pay for
hosted software
● Flywheel: increases usage and revenue
● Better suited for self-serve, which results
in more efficiency
● Enlarges total addressable market
● Requires a set of new skills: SREs, PLG
marketers, reactive CS, etc.
● It is a second product to build and
maintain
● Might require some architecture
changes

26. Bonus:
Self-Serve
vs.
Sales-Led

27. Navigating through many different motions

28. Navigating through many different motions

29. Navigating through many different motions

30. Navigating through many different motions

31. Navigating through many different motions

32. Navigating through many different motions

33. Self-Serve Sales-Driven
Pros ● More efficient
● Higher velocity
● Easily scalable
● Higher ACV
● Helps collecting feedback
Cons ● Lower Retention
● Lower ACV
● Capital intensive
● Requires strong
differentiators
Comments Great fit for SaaS Great fit for Open Core
Self-Serve vs. Sales-Driven

34. Thoughts
● Self-Serve and Sales-Led are complementary.
● But, you must start with only one.
● Going from Sales-Led to Self-Serve is HARD.
● Start with Self-Serve, especially if SaaS.
● Founders and a Product Advocate as first Sales Reps.

35. Pricing

36. 3Cs framework

37. Conclusion

38. Start with SaaS.
Is your ICP the Enterprise (ex. cybersecurity)?
Are you in a very crowded SaaS market?
Is open-source your only differentiator?
If yes, think about Open Core.
Otherwise:
Start with SaaS.
What business model should I pick?

39. ● Start selling early.
● Do something users want.
● Default to SaaS.
● Default to Self-Serve.
● Focus on ONE model only.
● Say no, say no, say no to the rest.
Conclusion

40. 2
1
3
Conclusion

41. Resources

42. Thank you!
pierre@strapi.io