How Sysdig found product-market fit: Loris Degioanni on leveraging open source for cloud security

How Sysdig found product-market fit: Loris Degioanni on leveraging open source for cloud security

Author: Unusual Ventures July 31, 2023 Duration: 40:32

Sysdig is a cloud native application protection platform that helps stop cloud and container security attacks. In this episode, Sysdig’s founder and CTO, Loris Degioanni chats with Wei Lien Dang about why he founded Sysdig and how he leveraged the power of open source for growth and industry disruption.


Join us as we discuss:

(1:39) How Loris leveraged market and tech stack changes to build Sysdig

(7:46) Sysdig's journey as an early pioneer in containerization technology

(12:16) Sysdig’s pivot from monitoring to cybersecurity

(17:48) The power of open source in building Sysdig

(21:48) The nuances and commitment necessary for a successful open source project:

(28:33) Finding product-market fit in an open source context

(30:42) The role of an open-source project as a brand, marketing tool, and source of lead generation

(31:45) Balancing community involvement and establishing a solid business model

(33:34) Commercializing an open source project

(37:32) Advice for founders building open source companies


Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and 

Twitter

LinkedIn


Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tools.  Wei was a co-founder of StackRox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat. He can be reached at wei@unusual.vc and

Twitter

Linkedin


Loris Degioanni is the founder and CTO of Sysdig. Prior to founding Sysdig, Loris co-created Wireshark, an open source network analyzer.


Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.


Further reading from the Startup Field Guide:

Starting an open source company

Developing open-source software customers

Building GTM for an open source company



Behind every so-called overnight success in software, there's a long, often messy journey of finding exactly what customers need and how to deliver it. That's the central theme explored in Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast. This series is built for those in the trenches of early-stage software companies, from founders just starting out to leaders tasked with building something from nothing. Each episode moves beyond theory, offering grounded conversations with people who have actually navigated these challenges. You'll hear them unpack the real work of identifying a true market need, the nuances of early hiring decisions, and the practical steps of crafting a go-to-market strategy. Fundraising, often a opaque process, gets broken down into more understandable components. The focus remains consistently on the actionable and the specific, providing a kind of audio manual for the foundational phase of a business. Tune in for a candid look at the less-glamorous, critical work that separates an idea from a viable company, all brought to you by Unusual Ventures. This podcast serves as a resource for turning those initial concepts into a sustainable operation, one hard-won lesson at a time.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 53

Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast
Podcast Episodes