Thoughts on our open secret to success

 

As you may know, GitHub is a highly popular service for hosting your code. More specifically hosting your code in a version control system called Git. At NodeOne we use GitHub to host almost all our code and it has simplified administration considerably.

 

In his blog post, Preston-Werner, lists a number of advantages they gained after they decided to open source several of their general purpose projects. We can attest to those advantages as we've had very similar experiences from open sourcing code. But we've tried to take it a step further. Rather than just open sourcing code, we try to embody the principles of open source in our core values and the way we operate.

 

To see how we arrived there and what it means in practice we need to look back a bit. Building a company around the idea of providing service to meeting a need that exists seems natural. In our case it was Drupal. As it turns out we've been successful and shown good growth. The combination of a highly powerful product, a group of founders with skillsets and personalities that complete each other well and extremely talented staff helped us get off the ground. We kept growing even though we started when the first signs of recession appeared in 2008.

 

At some point you look back and wonder "what makes it tick?". Usually for two reasons: in order to allow your company to scale you need to codify your recipe for growth, and secondly because people keep asking you what "you did right".

 

Following the media exposure we gained after being awarded the Super Gazelle Prize in November last year, we got asked the second question a lot and how it related to our 3346% growth.

The short and simple answer we gave the press was that "giving things away" explained a lot of the success. But in reality "giving things away" is just a small part of a wider culture and belief – the importance of embodying the values and principles of open source.

 

In April last year, long before we even had any idea what we were being considered a finalist for the Super Gazelle Prize, I held a talk at a one-day conference called Startup Day. Organized by the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship, Startup Day is an annual event for students, entrepreneurs and investors on the lookout for interesting projects and people to follow. The topic of my talk was how NodeOne had found success by "being the good guy", or more precisely embodied open source.

 

I talked about a number of gains we'd made as a direct result, such as how we've built stronger relationships with clients and attracted global top talent. But also how it's resulted in incredibly powerful marketing and how it's built credibility and an atmosphere of innovation within the company. You can get the slides here.

 

Just like GitHub we try to release as much code as possible as open source, something that is partly mandated due to the fact that Drupal is open source. But we also try and modularize and make code generic and reusable as it strengthens Drupal's community as well as brings value to our customers (for the same reasons Preston-Werner refers to as a 'force multiplier').

 

Beyond releasing code we also try to be as open as possible. Our pricing is very consistent and transparent. We talk open about how we work and we share the tools we use, not just to build sites and do development, but how do manage projects. Tools we apply at a management and conceptual level. Templates, documents, spreadsheets and charts. No secrets. Competitors inspired by our way of working and our consistent drive to improve often interview us about how we do things. We answer. No secrets.

 

Do we talk about everything? Nope. Certain things are, just like Preston-Werner points out, at the core of your business. Such as business and market strategy. We want NodeOne to be a force for good, and force for change but also fully viable. And viability requires some secrets. Unfortunately.

 

But even with those few secrets locked away, we are open source at the core. As we are a strategic web agency specializing in an open source CMS it is an extension of where we came from. However I don't think doing the same thing is only possible in our line of business. Being open, teaching everyone (including the competition) and believing what's good for everyone is good for you, generate benefits.

 

Maybe open source, and the inclusive and planet-spanning movements it's given rise to tap into the core of being human. Recent research supports the notion that we're born alruists and learn to be tactically selfish. We believe in being strategically altruistic, knowing well that the good you do always comes back to you.

 

So next time you: