FiredUp! - The Startup Marketing Podcast

Marketing an Open Source Product with Jonathan Symonds

January 25, 2024 Firebrand Episode 20
Marketing an Open Source Product with Jonathan Symonds
FiredUp! - The Startup Marketing Podcast
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FiredUp! - The Startup Marketing Podcast
Marketing an Open Source Product with Jonathan Symonds
Jan 25, 2024 Episode 20
Firebrand

Open source can be seen as a marketing strategy more than anything else. And when you don’t always know who your end user is and what they’re using the product for, it can prove to be challenging. Luckily, today’s guest knows just how to market in this unique landscape. This week, episode 20 of the FiredUp! podcast is about marketing in the open source space!


Download the Multiplier Marketing Megapack today. Exclusive offer for all our listeners — get all our Startup Guides in one go! Over 50 pages of advanced tips and advice that dive deep into content marketing, search advertising, and marketing attribution.


In this episode of the FiredUp! podcast, Jonathan Symonds shares his strategies for appealing to users from all angles and actionable steps you can take right now to build an engaged community around your product that is proud to represent it. 


Jonathan Symonds is the Chief Marketing Officer for MinIO where he is responsible for product marketing, demand generation and corporate awareness. Previously, Jonathan was the CMO of Ayasdi, a pioneer in the field of machine intelligence and was the VP of Marketing for GPU-powered analytics pioneer, HeavyAI. He has over 20 years of enterprise software and analytics marketing experience at Ace Metrix, 2Wire and Tandberg. He holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Washington and Lee University.


Jonathan, Morgan, and Chris discuss: 

  • Startups play either a leadership or stewardship role in open source projects, depending on the ownership. 
  • Balancing conflict from the expectations of idealistic users and the commercial demands of running a business by staying true to the principles of the brand itself.
  • Using web analytics to identify who is using your product and in what ways they’re using it.
  • Maximizing content creation efforts through technical writing and video production. 
  • The buckets of marketing KPIs that MinIO is using to track performance. 


Thank you for listening! Tune in to all the episodes for practical tips on crushing your startup marketing goals. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast, and tell us your key takeaways!


CONNECT WITH JONATHAN SYMONDS:

Website

X (Twitter): @minio

LinkedIn


CONNECT WITH FIREBRAND:

Firebrand is a startup marketing agency. We help tech startups secure outsized marketing outcomes on their path to growth.


Facebook

LinkedIn

X (Formerly Twitter)

Work with Firebrand


LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:


Blue Ocean Strategy 

Wynter

Send us a Text Message.

Show Notes Chapter Markers

Open source can be seen as a marketing strategy more than anything else. And when you don’t always know who your end user is and what they’re using the product for, it can prove to be challenging. Luckily, today’s guest knows just how to market in this unique landscape. This week, episode 20 of the FiredUp! podcast is about marketing in the open source space!


Download the Multiplier Marketing Megapack today. Exclusive offer for all our listeners — get all our Startup Guides in one go! Over 50 pages of advanced tips and advice that dive deep into content marketing, search advertising, and marketing attribution.


In this episode of the FiredUp! podcast, Jonathan Symonds shares his strategies for appealing to users from all angles and actionable steps you can take right now to build an engaged community around your product that is proud to represent it. 


Jonathan Symonds is the Chief Marketing Officer for MinIO where he is responsible for product marketing, demand generation and corporate awareness. Previously, Jonathan was the CMO of Ayasdi, a pioneer in the field of machine intelligence and was the VP of Marketing for GPU-powered analytics pioneer, HeavyAI. He has over 20 years of enterprise software and analytics marketing experience at Ace Metrix, 2Wire and Tandberg. He holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Washington and Lee University.


Jonathan, Morgan, and Chris discuss: 

  • Startups play either a leadership or stewardship role in open source projects, depending on the ownership. 
  • Balancing conflict from the expectations of idealistic users and the commercial demands of running a business by staying true to the principles of the brand itself.
  • Using web analytics to identify who is using your product and in what ways they’re using it.
  • Maximizing content creation efforts through technical writing and video production. 
  • The buckets of marketing KPIs that MinIO is using to track performance. 


Thank you for listening! Tune in to all the episodes for practical tips on crushing your startup marketing goals. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast, and tell us your key takeaways!


CONNECT WITH JONATHAN SYMONDS:

Website

X (Twitter): @minio

LinkedIn


CONNECT WITH FIREBRAND:

Firebrand is a startup marketing agency. We help tech startups secure outsized marketing outcomes on their path to growth.


Facebook

LinkedIn

X (Formerly Twitter)

Work with Firebrand


LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:


Blue Ocean Strategy 

Wynter

Send us a Text Message.

Marketing in the Open-Source Space with Jonathan Symonds
Position the value of products differently in open source
Balancing open source philosophy with commercial demands.
Using multiple tools to gather data and analyze user behavior
The importance of authenticity in paid promotions
Content creation strategies for a tech companies
How to measure performance across different channels in an open source company.
The value in partnerships for a startup in the open-source space
Leveraging events in open source marketing
Smart People, Dumb Questions Segment
Fired Up Five Segment