Code hosting service looking for a co-founder with a post growth business mindset

In July 2022 Gna! started offering code hosting services similar to those provided by GitHub. We knew that by doing so we were entering a mature market, engaging in a David against Goliath fight. Gna! already has a competitive software foundation and the primary goal is to bootstrap a business, reach out to users and customers. In order to do that Gna! can leverage unique properties that have the potential to radically transform the landscape: Free Software, federated and self-hostable. It could be compared to the rise of organic food producers in the past decades: it enables people to use and produce healthier software.

We are a team of two, Loïc Dachary a developer committed to Free Software since the late 80' and Aravinth Manivannan who shares the same long term vision. Both of us are, first and foremost, geeks with strong technical skills but unable to create a sustainable business. That did not stop us and we moved forward regardless. Until the Plausible story was published and inspired us to reach out, look for someone with the right skills and the right mindset to be a co-founder of Gna!. It is also a good approximation of what the Gna! success story could be, turning a SaaS based on Free Software into a profitable business.

In 2019, Plausible was implemented as a Google Analytics alternative and was, at the time, a technology without a customer base. A year later and a meager $400 in monthly income, the creator started looking for a marketing co-founder and they both bootstrapped Plausible into a self-sustaining company with an annual income of one million USD in 2022. No investors, all Free Software, fully self-hostable: a success story that reflects positively on the spirit of a post growth economy.

If you see yourself in Marko, the marketing co-founder who joined Plausible and helped it grow, read on, you're in the right place at the right time.

In order to participate in this adventure, you need the following background:

• A strong desire to bootstrap a company from the ground up
• A track record of entrepreneurial and marketing-related skills
• A good understanding of the Free Software philosophy and the associated business models
• A good understanding of service business models based on Free Software
• A mindset that is closer to cooperatives than startups trying to become unicorns
• Fluent in English
• A software engineering background (preferred)

When you browse around https://gna.org you will find a governance was established, there are members and a revenue sharing model was invented and many other non-technical elements. Please keep in mind that these are not set in stone: more than anything they reflect the spirit of the people who participated in making Gna! what it is now. Everything can be replaced or removed with very little resistance but ... it won't be possible to make a change that would involve changing its core values: transparency, Free Software and post growth.

What will be your responsibility in Gna!?

• Business development
• Marketing
• Sales

What will you get out of Gna!?

• A voice to decide how Gna! is setup as an organization
• A co-founder position with the associated control over the organization
• A salary (when money comes in)

We very much look forward to discussing with you and growing Gna! into the healthy online service it should be. The floor is yours.