Axel Fontaine, creator of Flyway, one of the most popular database migration tools, joins Marco to share how he built a global open source project, turned it into a profitable business, and sold it to Redgate. From bootstrapping alone to making millions without investors, Axel’s story is a deep dive into the business side of coding.
💡 Topics in this episode:
How Flyway grew from a side project to an acquisition
The power of simplicity and zero dependencies
Turning open source into a sustainable business
Bootstrapping vs venture capital
Life after selling your company
⏱️ Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:54) Guest introduction
(01:18) What is Flyway?
(02:16) Evolution of databases and CI/CD
(07:37) The idea and first version of Flyway
(10:41) Competitors and why Axel built his own tool
(13:27) Building Flyway’s simplicity and focus
(17:30) Design principles: zero dependencies and reliability
(20:18) Learning user focus through onboarding docs
(23:31) How Flyway’s roadmap evolved
(27:00) Handling bugs, testing challenges, and quality
(31:27) Marketing and early promotion
(33:49) The Maven Release Plugin blog post
(36:07) Technical mistakes and lessons learned
(38:28) Managing contributors and open-source community
(44:44) Burnout and balancing workload
(50:43) Turning Flyway into a business
(52:20) Failed monetization attempts
(01:09:11) Licensing, IP cleanup, and CLA process
(01:30:02) First commercial release and first sale
(01:31:56) Rapid revenue growth
(01:39:07) Leaving consulting and going full-time on Flyway
(01:44:30) Negotiating with enterprise customers
(01:46:55) Acquisition interest and decision process
(01:52:46) Decision to sell
(02:04:57) Life after the sale and reflection
(02:07:38) Key lessons for founders
(02:09:50) Giveaway
(02:10:47) Rapid-fire questions
(02:13:18) Outro
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📺 Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lwF2fg1fOHk