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Open Source Blog
The next big thing? Four open source start-ups to watch
June 29, 2007
A group of open source start-ups have appeared on CBR's radar in recent weeks. I thought it was worth taking a quick look at their credentials to see how they progress from here. They are, in no particular order: Apatar, GravityZoo, LoopFuse, and Untangle (alright I lied, they're in alphabetical order). Here's our first impressions:
Name: Apatar Inc
From? Chicopee, MA
Product? Apatar Data Integration
URL? http://www.apatar.com/
In 10 words or less? Open source data integration - extract, transform and load.
Business model? The Community Edition is free, the Enterprise Edition costs from $9,995 adding extra features. Apatar Enterprise Data Mashups is offered as software-as-a-service.
License? GNU GPL
Community? 11 developers at SourceForge.
Hosted DataMap connector development at ApatarForge.
Named customers? Kenya.com and ProSource Tools.
Blog? CEO Renat Khasanshyn is at http://nakedopensource.com/.
Funding? No.
Anything else? Major development centre is in Minsk, Belarus. The technology is developed with Java using Eclipse. Target usage scenarios include quick mashup integration, as well as traditional data and application integration.
Name: The GravityZoo Company, a trade name of DitchITall BVBA
From? Lanaken, Belgium
Product? The GravityZoo Framework, including Client, Backend, Toolkit and Demo applications
URL? http://www.gravityzoo.com/
In 10 words or less? A framework for web-enabling enterprise applications.
Business model? Dual licensing. “Most of the non-core components of the GravityZoo Framework will progressively be released into the Open Source community” including APIs, toolkits and the Universal Object Library. Additionally GravitySource is an open source software development platform, hosting GravityZoo Framework projects, while MediaZoo is a demo application for online music and video management built using Ogg Vorbis.
License? GravityZoo RealTime Chat and GravityZoo Messenger are both using the BSD license. Other than that it remains to be seen.
Community? GravityZoo Developer Registry.
Named customers? Not yet.
Blog? http://blog.gravityzoo.com/
Funding? Not yet - “We intend to attract VC funding to finalize our products and services and start executing our market and open source strategy.”
Anything else? The company has set up the GravityZoo Trust; an organization run by members of the GravityZoo open source community and entitled to a percentage of the profits earned by The GravityZoo Company. The company is in the process of porting OpenOffice.org to its framework as a proof of concept. Applications running in the GravityZoo Framework do not communicate via the HTTP protocol but via a “state replication protocol” called REP.
Name: LoopFuse LLC
From? Peachtree City, GA
Product? LoopFuse One View
URL? http://www.loopfuse.com
In 10 words or less? Open source demand generation and CRM integration.
Business model? One View Open Source is free and licensed via the GPL and backed by fee charged services and consulting. One View Enterprise Edition is a fee charged hosted offering.
License? GNU GPL
Community? Not a lot. There is a Wiki and a Forum but both are works in progress.
Named customers? Not yet.
Blog? http://www.loopfuse.org/blog/
Funding? Not yet.
Anything else? The company was founded by Tom Elrod, formerly the lead architect for JBoss Remoting, and Roy Russo, co-founder of the JBoss Portal project, and is being advised by Alfresco's Matt Asay.
Name: Untangle Inc
From? San Mateo, CA
Product? The Untangle Gateway Platform
URL? http://www.untangle.com/
In 10 words or less? Open source network security.
Business model? The Untangle Gateway Platform is open source and free and runs 12 core open source security applications, such as spam, spyware, virus and phish blocking. The Professional Package add-on requires a commercial license and delivers live support, advanced management capabilities, and additional access options.
License? Mostly GPL. 95% of the code is open source.
Community? 2 developers at SourceForge, a forum, and mailing list.
Named customers? BGO Architects.
Blog? http://blog.untangle.com/
Funding? $10.5 million Series A in December 2006 from CMEA Ventures and Rustic Canyon Partners.
Anything else? The company was previously known as Metavize. It offers two servers that come with the Untangle Gateway Platform pre-installed, or users can install on their own dedicated server. CEO Bob Walters began his career landing F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft on aircraft carriers.
UPDATE
Alex Fletcher has a nice post building on this list with his thoughts about "what the emergence of such new entrants means within the context of the growth of the open source marketplace and its continued maturation as a technical force".
Comments
Love this! I Just gave a talk to SRO audiences at a series of ITEC shows (Houston, Dallas, Deattle, Detroit and Indianapolis.) The timing is perfect for what I call: mixed-model Open Source projects and appliances.
Our file server appliance FileEngine is benefiting from the acceptance/awareness of popular solutions built with FLOSS.
They say a trend is your friend! There's never been a better time to offering a FLOSS based product with a commercial value proposition.
Kim Brand
CEO
Server Partners, LLC
www.FileEngine.com
P.S. Feel free to get my slides at www.FileEngine.com/slides
Hey Matt:
thanks for mentioning Untangle. Just FYI our Series A round took place in 2006, not 1996. :)
thanks,
Andrew
Oops! Thanks
Matthew,
am I the only one puzzled about why a usually insightful commentator like you is giving free advertising away to a company whose code is not Open Source as of now, and won't likely be open sourced in the future, as Gravity Zoo vision of what Open Source is (see their FAQ) is far far away from what is normally considered as open?
Looks like there is a *lot* of trust on your side...
Thanks, I just thought what they are trying to do is technically interesting, but as you say, their licensing choice will be an important turning point. One to watch for a number of reasons.
Thanks Matthew for covering GravityZoo in your Blog. It is one of the best profiles I have seen so far. Furthermore I want to react to one of the reactions given.
FOSS in general generates a value add of about 12 billion US$ of which only a small part is realized by the FOSS community itself. Most of the money made can be attributed to companies using open source software as such for their customers or in combination with services delivered. The FOSS developers themselves are hardly receiving anything. So yes I fully understand the scepticism vented in one of the reactions.
On the other hand this also presents us with a challenge, i.e. how to (partly) redirect this enormous amount of money for the benefit of the community as such and the individual FOSS developer. It is this question GravityZoo confronted itself with in the early stages of developing the GravityZoo Framework. As an answer we decided to try to create a viable business model for the FOSS developer consisting of all parties involved (developer, community and GravityZoo) receiving a fair share from the revenue generated through what we call FOSS Software as a Service (FOSSaaS) delivered via the GravityZoo Framework.
Does willing to share the revenue make us trustworthy? My answer is fairly simple: Not until we start sharing the money and only then when the sharing is audited on a regular basis. It was especially for the latter reason that we will create a Trust the moment we start receiving FOSSaaS revenue.
Let me finalize my reaction with the following statement: In order for the FOSS community to move ahead we all should try to find a way to work together. i.e. new ways that will benefit all of us. We as GravityZoo do realize that we are scouting new territories and that we will be judges based upon what we say and if we act accordingly. We are willing to confront the challenge.
Mahdi Abdulrazak
GravityZoo
Thanks for the information Mahdi, that should certainly help people to understand the proposition. Like the GravityZoo technology itself, it will be interesting to see how the Trust and revenue sharing model develops.
Loopfuse for LYFE!
Matthew, from the entire Apatar community and team members I wanted to post a note of thanks for including Apatar into the list of start-ups to watch.
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