In My Humble Opinion

Q: What do startup founder-CEOs actually do?

A: The role of a founder-CEO revolves around three key responsibilities. First, defining a clear vision and strategy for the company sets a ‘dot on the horizon,’ guiding the entire team. Second, fostering a strong company culture ensures employees enjoy their work, stick around, and perform well, which keeps customers happy. Lastly, securing enough financial resources to execute the company’s plans is crucial. Early on, this might involve securing investment, and as the company grows, it could come from additional funding rounds or revenue. These three pillars—vision and strategy, culture, and financial resources—are essential to the role of a founder-CEO.

Q: How should founders go about defining a vision and strategy for their company?

A: Defining a vision is both the easiest and most challenging part of being a (founder) CEO because it can be anything desired. There’s no strict formula for creating a vision, making it more of an art than a science. Over the years, various tools and methods have been learned and applied in this process.

On the other hand, strategy is simply the method for executing that vision. Strategy is more science than art, with many tools available for development. Using two-by-twos or plotting things on X and Y axes can make the strategy clear to everyone in the company. It’s crucial to keep repeating the vision and strategy to ensure alignment.

Lastly, articulating a vision that’s imperfect but adjustable is better than having no vision at all. The strategy should put a ‘dot on the horizon’ so everyone knows the direction to take. It should be abstract enough to allow flexibility in execution but concrete enough to avoid confusion.

Q: What makes a good vision statement?

A: A great vision statement has two key ingredients. First, it must start with a ‘why.’ This concept, popularized by Simon Sinek, suggests that you should begin by explaining why you do what you do, then move on to how you do it, and finally, what you do. Most companies focus on telling people what they do, but the real power lies in explaining why they do it. Starting with ‘why’ helps to articulate the deeper purpose behind your actions.

Finding out your ‘why’ is way harder than figuring out your ‘what,’ because the ‘what’ is visible in what you’re making and doing. To uncover your ‘why,’ it’s essential to blend your vision for the company with feedback from your community of users and customers. When they express appreciation for something that aligns with your vision, that feedback helps to shape and confirm your ‘why.’ So, while the ‘why’ is informed by the vision, it’s validated by what your community tells you.

Second, a strong vision must ‘zig where others zag.’ Even if other companies have a compelling ‘why,’ there’s always room to differentiate yourself. Many businesses attempt to stand out on the ‘what’ level—such as through features or functionality—but true differentiation should happen at the ‘why’ level.

A well-articulated vision also sets in motion a flywheel effect for the three key responsibilities of a founder-CEO. A clear vision makes it easier to define a strategy that inspires and motivates people, which in turn excites your community of users, customers, and potentially investors. This enthusiasm then reinforces the vision, strengthens the strategy, and continues to build momentum.

To illustrate this, consider two examples: OpenAI and Weaviate.

• OpenAI’s ‘why’ is clear—they aim to build AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). This purpose drives everything they do, without the need to boast about having the fastest or biggest models. Their focus on AGI attracts people who want to be part of that journey.
• Similarly, at Weaviate, the vision is about enabling all tens of millions of developers to build AI-natively more easily and efficiently. This vision statement shapes the strategy and the product, ultimately focusing on people, enablement, and feature-rich tools to help people achieve this more easily.

Q: How should founders go about creating a company culture?

A: The cliché holds true: company culture starts with the founder(s). In the early days, it’s just them, and the way they interact and behave sets the tone. Typically, people who share similar values are hired, and that’s where company culture begins to form.

A strict no-asshole policy should be followed. Identifying this in the hiring process is relatively straightforward—if someone struggles with using words like ‘please,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘sorry,’ they might not fit the culture being built.

Rituals also play a key role in culture. Some rituals emerge naturally, while others are intentionally created. For instance, at Weaviate, the entire team gathers annually in a different location, and the co-founders cook for the team. Though the team is large, and some help is needed, this act symbolizes appreciation.

The no-asshole policy is also about responsibility. As the company grows, employees build their livelihoods around it. They might buy houses, get married, and start families. There’s a responsibility to ensure a great place to work, where people enjoy coming to work. When employees enjoy what they do, they perform better, stick around, and customers benefit from it.

Q: On an ideal day, what should a CEO of a company do?

A: The role of a startup founder-CEO focuses on three key areas: defining vision and strategy, nurturing company culture, and ensuring sufficient financial resources. These responsibilities can be likened to spinning plates. The better those plates are spun—vision and strategy, culture, and financials—the more they keep spinning on their own. The ideal scenario for a CEO is to reach a point where these plates spin smoothly with minimal intervention. While it’s a rare utopia, the ultimate goal is to do absolutely nothing because everything is functioning well. Unfortunately, often the reality is that most of the time is spent keeping these plates from wobbling.

Q: Why is kindness Weaviate’s first company value?

A: Kindness is our first value for both personal and business reasons. Personally, I believe that kindness creates a ‘long tail of kindness,’ fostering tribal knowledge and commitment essential for executing the company’s vision and strategy. From a business perspective, people buy from people they like. Interactions tainted by unkindness affect everything from customer communications to software documentation and marketing materials. Customers can sense an unkind company culture from afar. Practicing basic courtesies like saying ‘please,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘sorry’ at the right times is a simple yet effective way to embed kindness in operations. Ultimately, kindness helps retain talent and makes customers happier.

Q: What is the long tail of kindness?

A: The long tail of kindness refers to the extended, enduring benefits that kindness can generate within an organization. When practiced consistently, kindness enhances employee satisfaction and retention, creating a positive and supportive work environment. This, in turn, leads to the accumulation of tribal knowledge, where employees deeply understand and align with the company’s goals and culture. The more experienced and committed the team, the more effectively they can execute the company’s vision and strategy. The long tail effect means that these benefits continue to accrue and amplify over time, contributing significantly to the company’s success and the well-being of its people. In contrast, leadership that maintains a harsh regime may see a quick peak in performance, but this often leads to rapid turnover, hampering the development of tribal knowledge and negatively impacting long-term organizational health.

Q: What is a Bias to Shipping Mindset?

A: In an early stage startup, a bias to shipping is obvious because the goal is to always ship new features and improvements to customers and users every day. However, as your company grows, maintaining this mindset becomes more challenging. In enterprises, this challenge is often referred to as the Innovator’s Dilemma, but it happens in startups too. It’s a gradual process, not something that occurs overnight.

The first reason this happens is due to the company’s growth. As the company expands, so do the communication lines within it. The result is an inward focus where more time is spent communicating internally than building and shipping products. The solution is to keep user centricity at the forefront. Always consider what the user sees and interacts with in your product. By emphasizing with the user (e.g., what’s the minimal thing I would like to see if I were a user?), you can bring prototypes to customers faster, allowing them to play around with new features and provide feedback. This approach helps avoid internal discussions that can lead to bike-shedding. It’s also crucial to understand that simply adding more people to the team is rarely the solution—maintaining a bias to shipping is about mindset, not the # of people working on it.

The second issue arises with the growth of your customer base. More customers mean more time must be spent on the core technology to keep them happy, as their use cases expand and they demand more from your product. In this scenario, adding more people might help, but it’s important to remember that solving the second problem doesn’t automatically resolve the first one.

Both issues need to be managed carefully to maintain a Bias to Shipping mindset.

Q: What do you mean by Cultivating User Centricity?

A: Cultivating user centricity is about putting the user at the forefront of everything you do. While focusing on the user or customer isn’t new—companies like Amazon have mantras like “customer obsession”—my perspective, particularly in the realm of B2B open source, is slightly different. It emphasizes a shift away from company-centric thinking toward truly understanding the user’s perspective by being empathetic (the reason I emphasize user centricity rather than customer centricity is that in an open source B2B context, every customer is a user, and every user can become a customer).

In many software companies, there’s a tendency to be company-centric in how we communicate and operate. For example, saying, ‘We helped this customer within the agreed SLA time’ sounds positive, but it’s company-centric because the customer doesn’t care about the SLA—they just want to be helped.

🛑 ​company-centric: Look at how many features we released today!

✅ user-centric: Let us show you what this newly released feature can do for you!

Shifting from company to user-centric communicating is intellectually challenging. Writing a company-centric message is often easier and quicker than crafting communication that considers different user personas and their unique needs. Frameworks like user stories in Agile provide some structure for this, but cultivating user centricity is about more than just following a framework. It’s about fostering a deep, empathetic understanding of all your users and ensuring that this understanding informs every decision and communication.

An excellent example –outside B2B software– of this in action is Nike’s ‘Be Like Mike’ campaign for Air Jordans. The slogan and the entire campaign are built around empathizing with their customers’ desire to be like Michael Jordan. They took that insight, brought it back into their communication strategy, and broadcasted it in a way that resonated deeply with their audience. If Nike would communicate like the average B2B software company, it would be something like: “Check out our latest innovation, the Air Jordans, featuring cutting-edge design and technology crafted by our top engineers!” but instead, they communicate something like: “Unleash your inner champion with the Air Jordans. Designed to elevate your game, these shoes aren’t just about performance—they’re about becoming the best version of yourself.”

Q: What is the benefit of open-source compared to closed source?

A: One of the key benefits of open-source is the creation of an ‘open-by-default’ culture. When working on various aspects of a company—whether it’s the product, company building, playbooks, branding, marketing, or anything else—open-source encourages a culture where the default answer to sharing with the outside world is ‘yes’ rather than ‘no.’ The belief is that when people can share their work, it creates a more pleasant and engaging working environment. This open-by-default approach isn’t limited to software; anything can be open. For example, at Weaviate, our company playbook was open-sourced, inspired by GitLab. This approach shapes how work is done and attracts a certain type of talent.

Q: Should B2B founders open-source their products?

A: The decision to open-source a product should come from the heart rather than the brain, and it doesn’t matter in a strict sense if you go for open or closed. If the desire to make something public and share it with the world is strong, then open-source is the way to go. However, if there is something special that you like to be kept private or if creating a patent is the goal, closed source might be the better option (although I think this is rarely the case). This decision is more of an art than a science—trusting one’s heart (and gut) is key.

Q: Should I go for an open-source or an open-core business model?

A: This decision often gets framed defensively, with concerns that making software open-source might lead to others monetizing it without the creator’s benefit, or worse, feeling like the software might be ‘stolen.’ However, the choice between open core and open-source should be based on the job to be done (the theory, that is) by your specific product. If the aim is to monetize services around the open-source project—such as hosting, support, or education—then an open-source business model may be the right choice. Here, the core remains open-source, while revenue comes from services built around it. On the other hand, with an open core business model, the core software is open, but additional features, extensions, or modules are available for purchase.

It’s worth noting that the landscape is evolving, with a merger of open core and open-source models happening. This shift is leading more towards an open-source approach where even modules and additional features can be monetized through cloud services. But that’s a topic for another Q&A.

​Most importantly, don’t think of this​ critical choice ​as​ a ​defensive business strategy but ​rather an offensive one (“how does this strategy enable our customers?” rather than “how does this strategy defend us from […]?” ).

Q: What can open-source do for a B2B software business?

A: Understanding what open-source can do for a B2B business (I don’t know anything about B2C) requires distinguishing between different models. A ‘closed-by-default’ business might incorporate open-source components, like a database company that keeps the database closed source but open-sources the client libraries. However, this wouldn’t be considered an open-source business—just a business with open-source components. An open-source business is one where the core asset, such as the Weaviate vector database, is open-source and where there is an open-by-default company culture.

The ‘business’ aspect is also crucial. An open-source business (versus foundation/project/etc) must generate revenue. Typically, there are two stages: pre-market fit and post-market fit.

In the pre-market fit stage, open-source helps determine if the company is on the right track toward market fit. Metrics like community engagement and downloads can gauge progress. People asking you: “how can I pay for X?” also is a good signal. As use cases emerge and cluster together, the end of the pre-market fit phase approaches. It’s vital to let this process happen organically without gaming the system, as misleading the community would be self-deceptive and hurts your company culture. If there is no market fit, there is no market fit.

Once the post-market fit stage is reached—when building out go-to-market (GTM)—the role of open-source shifts to being more about trust. Many businesses prefer services with a certain level of transparency, especially in core infrastructure. At this stage, open-source also begins to function as the go-to-market (GTM) engine, driving growth and adoption.

Q: What’s the difference between a user and a customer in an open source B2B context?

A: It’s surprising how often this question comes up, especially in the open source world, but the difference is quite simple. A user is someone who uses your open source solution without necessarily paying for it. They benefit from the product, contribute feedback, and may be part of the broader community. A customer, on the other hand, is someone who pays for something—whether it’s in an open source or open core context. Essentially, a dollar moves from their bank account to your bank account in exchange for additional value that you provide around your open source product.

PS:
The reason this misunderstanding often occurs is that early-stage open source B2B companies sometimes blur the lines between users and customers. They might refer to users as customers when they aren’t actually paying for anything. My strong advice is: don’t do this. It doesn’t help anyone and only adds confusion. In the early stages, it’s perfectly fine to have many users and to figure out later how to convert them into paying customers. Just don’t mix them up.

Q: Why is Weaviate a remote-first company?

A: The decision for Weaviate to be a remote-first company stems from the need to work with the best talent globally, especially in a high-tech, early-stage environment. Remote work allows specialists to be hired from anywhere, whether they’re researchers from Kyoto or salespeople in specific regions in the US and EU. More importantly, remote work enables efficient asynchronous operation, allowing the company to operate continuously around the clock, with team members working at times that suit them, judged on output rather than presence. Tools like Slack can be used for communication and function as your digital HQ, Donut for digital water cooler moments, and asynchronous methods like voice messages or recorded presentations to replace inefficient live meetings. This approach doesn’t preclude travel or in-person meetings but maintains flexibility as a core principle. Finally, it’s important to question whether office attendance is genuinely beneficial to the company or simply a boost to a CEO’s ego 😉

Q: What is the best go-to-market strategy for a B2B software startup?

A: Go-to-market (GTM) strategies are about how you approach the market once you’ve achieved product-market fit. There are four key motions to consider, and these can be plotted on a two-by-two grid. On one axis, you have a top-down and bottom-up approach. Top-down means you sell to leadership first—like a VP of Engineering or CTO—and the sale moves downward in the organization. Bottom-up is the reverse, where you start with developers or other hands-on users and work your way up to leadership.

On the other axis, you have inbound and outbound strategies. Inbound means potential customers come to you after discovering your product or hearing about it. Outbound means you reach out to prospects, pitching your product and its value directly to them.

With these motions, you end up with four types of GTM strategies:

1. Top-down, inbound: Leadership approaches you after hearing about your product. This is rare for startups because it usually requires an established brand.
2. Top-down, outbound: You pitch directly to leadership in organizations, selling down from there.
3. Bottom-up, inbound: Developers or users approach you about your product after discovering it on their own. This is often a strong starting point for startups, especially in open-source contexts.
4. Bottom-up, outbound: You start by reaching out to developers or users and work your way up to decision-makers.

Most startups begin with one of three strategies: bottom-up, inbound; bottom-up, outbound; or top-down, outbound. It’s rare to start with top-down, inbound because it requires a well-known reputation. Over time, the goal is to cover all four quadrants. Starting with bottom-up, inbound is often the most powerful, as it allows you to build a strong product and community. Open source plays a key role in this, as it attracts inbound interest even without a fully defined product.

Once you establish bottom-up, inbound, you can expand into other areas. As you identify patterns and use cases, you can move to bottom-up, outbound, and even top-down, outbound. For example, if developers love your product for a specific reason, you can reach out to other developers (bottom-up, outbound), and you can also demonstrate how leadership in other companies is using your product to solve problems (top-down, outbound).

Q: How to get your first dozen customers, and why you should prioritize bottom-up inbound in an open-source B2B context

A: A strong bias to bottom-up inbound in an open source B2B context means focusing on attracting developers and users first through a great product, rather than starting with top-down sales strategies. This method allows you to grow organically as developers discover your product, use it, and eventually become advocates for it within their organizations. The goal is to let the product and community drive inbound interest.

What’s critical here—and this is a big asterisk—is that you must signal on your website that you are a company, not just an open-source project. A basic pricing page, for example, helps convey that you’re open for business. As your product gains traction, companies will start reaching out, asking to buy services or solutions. It’s important to know that you don’t need to have a fully defined product offering in advance. Instead, listen to what customers want to buy and adapt based on that feedback. This is where the ‘jobs to be done’ framework comes in handy. Often, the reason you think people are buying your product is not the reason they think they’re buying it. Listening closely to customer feedback helps you understand the true job they need done. When you have your first dozen customers, you can tailor to those needs.

For example, in stateful software, customers might say they don’t want to run it themselves but specify exactly how they would prefer it to be run (X, Y, and Z). These specifics help shape the product. From your first 5, 10, or 20 customers, you start learning and adjusting your product positioning, moving into the next phase of your go-to-market journey. The core idea is to focus on bottom-up inbound through developers, leveraging a strong product that you actively market everywhere.

There’s also an important story to share about the value of persistence. Today, if you attend a Weaviate meetup in San Francisco, New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, or Seoul, hundreds of people will show up. But at the first Weaviate meetup I hosted in New York, zero people attended. We kept going, and eventually, people started showing up as interest grew. Giving it time is crucial.

Q: Why is it hard to monetize stateless technologies in an open-source (B2B) software context?

A: Monetizing stateless technologies is challenging because of the difference between stateless and stateful technologies. Stateless technologies, like an MP3 file, do not change state once created. For example, an artist records a song, which is then converted into an MP3 file. This file remains unchanged regardless of how often it’s copied, making it hard to monetize directly because its value can be duplicated without a way to track or control it. On the other hand, stateful technologies like Weaviate maintain state; they store data that users expect to retrieve reliably in the future, which is inherently valuable. Examples of hard-to-monetize stateless technologies include MP3 files and machine learning models, whereas stateful solutions like databases or platforms like Spotify, which control access to stateful content, are easier to monetize. Even in stateful contexts, building a business isn’t straightforward, but the key is finding ways to add or manage state effectively to create value.

Q: Is it true that you started your first software company when you were 15?

A: Yes, that’s true. At the age of 15 (2000, I’m born in ‘85), I started a tiny software company during a time when more and more people were looking to have websites. Having figured out how to build them, it was possible to help others create their own. Web agencies were rare back then, so the opportunity to make websites for those who didn’t know how was significant. The first project came about while working a side gig next to school in a warehouse in Zeewolde, a tiny town in The Netherlands, when they needed a website for the company. This shift allowed for more creative web-work (and greater earnings! This project earned me 500 euros, which felt incredible at the time!) than the warehouse job, and it was an absolutely fantastic experience.

Q: Did you really study music?

A: Yes, both in the Netherlands at ArtEZ and in the US at Berklee College of Music.

Q: Why did you study music instead of something like computer science?

A: The simple reason for choosing music over computer science was the belief that writing software wouldn’t become my future job (sitting at a desk all day, really?!). At around 17 or 18, my focus was on doing whatever was the most fun. So, this meant auditioning for the conservatory and spending days playing music with friends, learning about music, making art, and being creative — all while making websites on the side — it was fantastic. A few years later, a Fulbright grant and a scholarship from Berklee in Boston provided the opportunity to study there. A teacher explained how the cultural importance of music in the ’60s and ’70s had shifted to software and digital technology. This was eye-opening, leading to the realization that software could be as creative as music.

Q: Why did you change your career from music to technology?

A: It didn’t change but rather evolve. I like to see myself as a maker, someone who creates. The transition was organic, not a deliberate career change. Even the interest in business that developed near the end of my 20s happened naturally. Nothing about it was planned or intentional. Just following the path, going with the flow.

Q: Can people still hear you play music?

A: Yes! Here is a performance with Cuong Vu and Yonga Sun. Here is one with Billy Martin and Florian Weber. Also, this is a record from the band Square Orange.

Q: You’ve taken Harvard Business School’s Executive Education, is it worth it?

A: Not really. While the experience was pleasant and the professors excellent, the content itself is something that can be learned from books and online resources. For those considering studying at HBS, going for an actual degree would be more worthwhile. The Executive Education program is like a carrot without a stick—paying for the course means getting the certificate.

Q: What do you think will come after artificial intelligence?

A: The next big wave after artificial intelligence is likely to be related to bio and biotech. This includes advances in protein design and related fields, but there’s particular interest in biological computing. Significant developments in this area are expected in the not-too-distant future.

Q: Can I get a job at Weaviate?

A: Thank you for considering working at our company. Appreciation is felt by everybody when people reach out or send detailed messages about job opportunities. However, we receive thousands of inquiries, making it challenging to respond to all, especially since hiring decisions aren’t always handled personally. The best approach is to visit our careers website, submit your details there, and stay active in the open-source community. You’ll be noticed, and if there’s an open role, an invitation to the interview process will follow. Who knows, maybe we will work together in the future!

Q: Is it true that you answer all your emails and messages?

A: Yes, generally speaking, that’s true. Although some messages might be missed or responses might not be immediate, a genuine effort is made to reply to serious questions. I was inspired by Noam Chomsky and Nassim Taleb, who also prioritize responding to genuine emails. I’m of the opinion that if someone takes the time to write a detailed message, it’s only polite to respond, even if briefly.

Q: How do you deal with work stress?

A: A friend once told me about this intriguing theory that all mammals, when they die of natural causes, have had their hearts beat around one billion times. This theory suggests that an elephant lives longer than a mouse because its heart beats slower. If we assume this theory is true, then the number of heartbeats we have is finite, and we can’t control that. However, what we can control is what we make those heartbeats count for.

Stress is something we all deal with, whether we like it or not. Interestingly, the physiological reactions in our bodies—whether caused by anxiety or excitement, such as falling in love—are quite similar. The heart beats faster in both cases, yet we prefer the faster heartbeat from excitement over stress. Since stress is inevitable, the key is to manage it effectively.

One significant source of stress for founders is the fear of the unknown—wondering what others are thinking, what they’re doing, or if the right decisions are being made. To reduce this stress, it’s essential to return to the three core responsibilities of a founder-CEO, particularly the importance of defining a clear vision and strategy, and the importance of defining the ‘why’ over the ‘what.’ When zigging where others zag with a unique ‘why,’ there’s less concern about the unknown because you’re leading the pack. Being ahead of the curve turns the journey forward into an exciting adventure rather than a source of anxiety.

Once the vision, strategy, and ‘why’ are set, the team can rally behind them, working together to bring that vision to life. When this happens, the unknown becomes less daunting because the focus is on moving forward.

A supportive community of customers and users who appreciate what the company is doing can further reduce stress. Even if there aren’t many users or customers yet, a small, dedicated team that believes in the vision can provide the right kind of excitement—the kind that feels more like falling in love than being anxious.

Finally, when stress starts to creep in, it’s helpful to take a moment to reflect. Being in a position to start a company, having a great idea, possibly having a team that believes in it, maybe even raising some money or gaining early customers—these are incredible achievements. In those stressful moments, sit down, take a deep breath, appreciate the journey, and then continue moving forward.

Q: Did you use AI to generate this website?

A: Yes, AI was used, mostly to organize the content and text-heavy sections.

Q: What’s the conclusion of your TEDx talk ‘Digital Technology through the Lens of Language’?

A: In my TEDx talk, the role of language in digital technology and software is explored. Software is argued to be a creative expression, much like music, but uniquely structured through language. This perspective is inspired by Noam Chomsky’s view that language provides infinite possibilities with finite means. As culture evolves, so does language, though the alphabet remains constant, allowing for the continual invention of new expressions and ideas. Similarly, software encodes these evolving expressions within its structure. Conway’s law is mentioned, which posits that communication lines within an organization (in the broad sense of the word, so this can also be within a culture) are reflected in the software it produces. Therefore, if language allows for infinite creativity with limited means (i.e., the alphabet), and if software is written in (formalized) natural language, then software itself becomes a medium of boundless potential, capturing and creating whatever can be imagined.

Q: What productivity tools do you use?

A: The following tools are used:

• SuperHuman for email.
• Visual Studio Code for coding.
• LinkedIn for professional social media, Twitter/X occasionally (Facebook, Instagram, or similar platforms I do not use).
• Slack because it’s our digital HQ (I love the voice message feature).
• Any service Google Workspace offers.
• Grammarly on all devices (being a non-native English writer).
• iPhone 15 Pro.
• MacBook Air.

Fun facts:

• About 75% of the work is done on the phone, and 25% on the laptop.
• Apps are (always!) organized in alphabetical order.
• Almost all notifications and badges have been deactivated.
• A big inbox-zero fan, and this is typically achieved by the end of each Friday.

Q: Can we use a picture for our interview/podcast/etc?

A: Sure, feel free to pick one you like here.

Q: Are you a rock musician?

A: No, it’s (just) the hair.

Q: Is your name really Bob, not Robert?

A: Yup, Bob Martinus Hubertus van Luijt to be precise.