Why is everyone open sourcing their startups?

Honestly I think open source is popular is people realise the source code isn’t what makes your company valuable, it’s your developers

a week later, Theo new's clip: "I open-source t3 chat"

"If I dont get hold of the CEO", this is so your own world, LOL

him having his hair cover one eye was a choice

As someone hoping to launch a real software product eventually, these sorts of videos genuinely contain so much good advice. I really appreciated the tangent on appealing to innovators, especially.

Only because nobody has pointed this out. The line "Rarely is a software product entirely original. Everything is a remix." is not a reference to "Remix the software product", but a reference to a documentary called "Everything is a remix" which is an exploration/thesis on how any idea on the creative space (e.g. music, literature, movies, etc.), is not really original as there is no such thing, and everything is ultimately a mashup of prior ideas. Therefore, creators should not be overly attached to their "new/original ideas".

Open source backend / cli and closed source front end which is sold as cloud service seems popular, equal parts frustrating because no self host of the cool ui and related features but understandable as a revenue stream for creators.

Just so people know, the bell curve is the core of the book Crossing the Chasm and the chasm is the fact that the Early Majority (sometimes labelled as the Pragmatists) want something that provides value. I also think Theo explained himself as an Innovator but the "Want to try out new things" usually puts you more in the Early adopter category. In something like AI usage and testing he's an innovator. He's created T3 app, he's created Snitch Bench and also the Skatebench.

For me the answer is simple: Open Source sparks joy.

only open source the code if you’re selling something top of the open source code like deployment management/hosting or additional features