Open Source Startups

Sales Agility built Sweet CRM, an open-source alternative to Salesforce that eliminates per-user licensing fees and allows companies to customize the software to their business processes rather than fitting their business around rigid software. With ~$5M ARR, less than 5% comes from their SaaS offering; the majority comes from consulting services and customization. The company is bootstrapped, 40-person team based in Sterling, UK, and is now launching an improved SaaS platform (Q4) built on containers and load balancing.

Aviyal is building an open source community engagement platform that helps projects with strong user bases monetize through structured support and consulting. Founded by serial entrepreneur Abhishek (who previously sold Weavedin for $10 million), the startup raised $800k in pre-seed funding at a ~$9-10M valuation and has built a 1,000-person waitlist within months of launching in April 2021. With a 28-person team (12 engineers) based in India and a monthly burn of under $40k, they plan to launch paid pricing in April 2022.