Open at Adobe

Recently, Mozilla got a new CEO.  An internal candidate (John Lilly, COO) moves into the role to create and drive the vision of an open web for the betterment of all.

In conjunction with the move of Red Hat, and others, it's apparent that there is a misunderstanding of the availability of CEO types in open source and open source talents for executive positions in general... or the reverse.  not sure yet.

As a guy who has sat through a number of pitches for start up funding (from A round to E round) on both sides of the projector, it seems that the issue is a lack of recognition that the business model is changing in the software industry. It's not enough to focus on the coolness of the technology.  It's more important to deliver the appropriate service, not just the appropriate product. oh, and by the way, make money, return value, keep yourself out of jail, be cool. Note again, it's not the "open source business model", it's the "business model" for "open source"

Stop and think about this for a second. Ignoring the business aspects and expecting the technology to drive uptake is a great way to keep a hobby alive, but not to create the world domination that open source development can attain. Open source is and should be far more than a hobby.

The new CEOs are most often from outside the tech industry... in fact, often from adjacent service industries. So, are the companies brilliant or simply lacking in vision for the folks in the trenches of open source. Or does the the misconception that open source types want to give it all away make this a moot and misunderstood point. And does the understanding of service industry types on open source mate well with the technical types creating the new universe.

Off the top of my head, I can think of 5-10 open source people I wouldn't mind running a start up as CEO that wouldn't show up on a recruiting search. I'm more limited as to ones that I'd trust  with my $50M business.  And I'd bet that none of my candidates would ever be acceptable to a big name VC/PE company. (it seems to be one of the standard questions these days "Who's going to be the CEO", often asked of the-then CEO).

So do we need a new crop of CEO talent? Open source trained, willing to accept that usines is changing? I think the answer is no... we just need the chance to prove what we all can build.