The Pulse #109: Open source business model struggles at Wordpress
Also: OpenAI’s biggest-ever fundraise even as key people keep quitting; why executive recruiters ignore tech professionals, and more
Today, we cover:
Industry pulse. Microsoft won’t follow Amazon in 5-day RTO, Cloudflare auto-mitigates world-record DDoS attack, California nearly regulates AI companies, Revolut starts selling performance management framework as a product, and more.
Open source business model struggles: Wordpress. Automattic, creator of Wordpress, is being sued by one of the largest WordPress hosting providers. The conflict fits into a trend of billion-dollar companies struggling to effectively monetize open source, and are changing tactics to limit their competition and increase their revenue.
OpenAI: biggest-ever fundraise, as key people keep quitting. OpenAI raised a $6.6B in funding on a $157B valuation, making it the largest fundraiser ever. And yet, cofounders and executives continue to depart. This time it’s the CTO, Chief Research Officer, the VP of Research. Also, OpenAI will most likely finally become a for-profit.
Why executive recruiters ignore tech professionals. Connecting with executive recruiters is a helpful strategy for engineering leaders. Senior product director
shares key reasons these outreaches fail, and what you can do to improve chances.
1. Industry pulse
Microsoft won’t follow Amazon in 5-day RTO
In Seattle, the two largest tech employers are Microsoft and Amazon. Both companies are willing and able to match compensation of each other, so when Amazon announced two weeks ago that it’s mandating a strict 5-days-from-office policy from 1 Jan 2025, the question was whether Microsoft would follow.
The company has internally confirmed it will not, as per Business Insider, Microsoft EVP Scott Guthrie told employees that Microsoft has no plans to tighten remote work policies. This means Microsoft workers can expect to spend 2-3 days per week in the office as a hybrid arrangement. I expect experienced Amazon software engineers who are unhappy about their workplace’s 5-days-per-week policy, and who live within commuting distance of a Microsoft office, to start applying for open positions at Microsoft.