[dgrelaud]

I built https://carbone.io (document automation) for my own use at my first company in 2012. I open-sourced it in 2017, gave a conference talk about it in 2018, and then spent very little time on marketing beyond launching a simple SaaS offering and a basic website.

It eventually became an independent company in 2021, and it's been self-funded and profitable since 2024.

I had no idea this project would one day become my full-time job!

Looking back, I regret not open-sourcing more of our internal tools. It turned out to be one of the best ways to discover whether a product had real traction.

At the time, I struggled to justify open-sourcing our internal frameworks to my co-founders and investors. They preferred to keep them proprietary and treat them as trade secrets. However, most of the frameworks that remained internal have become increasingly difficult to maintain over time and now carry much greater long-term risk. They generate maintenance costs without creating enough value in return to justify their existence.

Fortunately, Carbone was an exception!