Engineering Founders

Early-day founding &  funding decisions, choosing ideas + using community tools to build a dev-tool company w/ Paul Dix

Episode Summary

Paul Dix, Founder & CTO @ InfluxData, joins us to discuss how to handle the emotional aspects of the founding experience, strategies for engaging with developers & using community tools to build a dev-tool company, and recommendations for approaching open-source & licensable business strategies. Additionally, Paul shares advice based on his experience transitioning from the bootstrapping dream to seeking external funding.

Episode Notes

Paul Dix, Founder & CTO @ InfluxData, joins us to discuss how to handle the emotional aspects of the founding experience, strategies for engaging with developers & using community tools to build a dev-tool company, and recommendations for approaching open-source & licensable business strategies. Additionally, Paul shares advice based on his experience transitioning from the bootstrapping dream to seeking external funding.

ABOUT PAUL DIX

Paul (@pauldix) is the creator of InfluxDB. He has helped build software for startups, large companies, and organizations like Microsoft, Google, McAfee, Thomson Reuters, and Air Force Space Command. He is the series editor for Addison Wesley’s Data & Analytics book and video series. In 2010 Paul wrote the book Service Oriented Design with Ruby and Rails. In 2009 he started the NYC Machine Learning Meetup. Paul holds a degree in computer science from Columbia University.

"Having resources, having capital to hire people and do things and iterate gives you time to potentially come to something that is valuable, right? If you don't actually get that time to iterate, you don't even get to play the game.”

- Paul Dix   

Join us at ELC Annual 2023!

ELC Annual is our flagship conference for engineering leaders. You’ll learn from experts in engineering and leadership, gain mentorship and support from like-minded professionals, expand your perspectives, build relationships across the tech industry, and leave with practical proven strategies.

Join us this August 30-31 at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco

For tickets, head to https://sfelc.com/annual2023

SHOW NOTES:

• Paul’s feelings about InfluxData’s 3.0 release (2:15)
• Strategies for handling the emotional aspects of the founding experience (4:38)
• InfluxData’s origin story & what went into Paul’s decision to start the company (8:44)
• Frameworks for navigating early-day founding / funding decisions (11:03)
• What gave Paul the conviction to seek greater funding (16:05)
• Comparing & contrasting the thought process behind Market IO and InfluxData (18:10)
• Perspectives on deciding what is a good idea (21:24)
• How deep technical motivation helps drive innovation as a founder (23:45)
• Gaining interest from developers as your target market (26:17)
• Use community tools as a strategy for building dev-tool specific companies (28:51)
• Lessons learned when designing InfluxData's open-source & licensable approach (32:02)
• InfluxData’s 2016 inflection point (35:34)
• Paul’s advice for deciding on open source or not & how to structure eng teams (39:20)
• Rapid fire questions (44:11)

LINKS AND RESOURCES

• I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World - Rachel Love Nuwer tells the unlikely story of how the psychedelic drug MDMA emerged from the shadows to the forefront of a medical revolution -- and the potential it may hold to help us thrive.
• Giannis Antetokounmpo post-game interview

This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

Jerry Li - Co-Host

Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/