EP28: Building an open source powered product and company, with AppSmith Co-Founder/CEO Abhishek Nayak

Jul 20 2022 • 41 mins

Abhishek is the co-founder and CEO of AppSmith, which is a low-code tool that helps developers build dashboards and admin panels very quickly. AppSmith has raised over $50M from investors like Accel, Bessemer, Insight and Prasanna Sankar (previously on the pod!).

In this conversation we primarily explore how Abhishek is building AppSmith with the open source community as a core part of the product, business model and long term strategy. We also talk about Abhishek’s incredible journey (and lessons) as a serial entrepreneur, how the Indian startup ecosystem has evolved over the last 10+ years, and the key drivers behind the trend of Indian startups building for the world.

In this episode we discuss:

Lessons from serial entrepreneurship and journey to founding AppSmith
- How did you get into building things?
- What were the most impactful learnings from your early startups?
- What is AppSmith and what led you to founding the company?
AppSmith and building an open source powered company
- How did you evaluate whether to build an open source company? And whether open source could be both an advantage and a viable strategy for AppSmith?
- What are some of AppSmith’s biggest differentiators vs other no-code internal tool products in market today?
- How did you approach getting your first customer? How did you evaluate early product market fit for the open source product/project?
- What were the biggest risks you were focused on mitigating early on and how did you approach it?
- What have you experienced as being the biggest advantages of building an open source product/company?
- What is your current scale and traction about 20 mos after launch?
Growth and monetization for an open source project
- What does the open source flywheel look like and which levers are you most focused on to drive adoption and keep improving the product?
- Where do you focus your marketing and growth efforts for an open source company?
- Why do people choose you over alternatives? How do customers and buyers evaluate the pros/cons of the open source nature of your product?
- In the context of your open source approach, what is your business model and how do you think about your monetization strategy?
- What’s your long term vision for AppSmith and what’s your approach to getting there?
- What has been the big differentiator between open source projects that have had great monetization vs ones that have struggled with monetization?
Indian startup ecosystem
- From your vantage point, what have been some big inflection points from the last 10+ years that have led to the thriving Indian startup ecosystem?
- What do you think is driving the trend of Indian startups building for the rest of the world?
- What are some of the advantages you see to building world class products in India?
Closeout questions
- What is the most challenging or difficult feedback you’ve received and how have you incorporated it going forward?
- What are your superpowers that you find yourself leaning on often?
- What’s something you believe that would surprise most people?