Delivering Fundamental Value

Posted Sep 19, 2016

At the beginning of this year, I read the Elon Musk biography. One quote in particular stands out:

"None of these start-ups understand the objective. The objective should be: what delivers fundamental value. I think it's important to look at things from a standpoint of what is actually the best thing for the economy." Elon Musk

With this, Elon Musk criticizes a number of startups, particularly payment startups, that are not working to create "fundamental value" as their objective. Since Super Source is involved with payments, I've given this some thought, and think what I'm doing is ultimately about what's best for the economy.

Super Source is a win-win for both the companies and the developers. For the developers, its clear that funding for their project is a good thing. But what about for companies?

Companies win too, because they actually prefer to use software that is maintained and sustainable, knowing that means less bugs, more features, and better code. Even though it costs money, it's worth it because it's safer and better to use a Super Source project. The fact that a project is financially supported and part of Super Source helps assure companies that the project will be sustainable.

I'd rather live in a world where the people writing business software can afford to maintain and reinvest in their work. Perhaps in this world, the Heartbleed security bug would have never even happened.

This is what delivering fundamental value is all about: doing something that benefits multiple parties and the economy as a whole.