Open Tech Strategies

What Open Tech Strategies does

Open Tech Strategies (OTS) is a private open source consulting firm founded in 2012 and organized as an LLC, headquartered in Chicago with additional presence in New York and Minneapolis. The firm provides professional services to corporations, government agencies, and non-profits on open source strategy, licensing, development processes, community building, and project management. Its service portfolio spans open source licensing, development strategy, developer coaching, release processes, end-to-end open source software development, due diligence, RFP drafting, partner and consortium design, and standards development. Its proprietary Open Source Independent Verification and Validation (OS IV&V) offering positions OTS as an independent community presence alongside development vendors to ensure projects remain genuinely open.

OTS's underlying technology stack is conventional open source tooling rather than a proprietary platform: Django, Wagtail, Hypha, MediaWiki, and the Parrot virtual machine underpin client work, while internal products include Forgerie (an open source Phabricator-to-GitLab migration tool), StreetCRM, and the Smoke Alarm Portal (built for the American Red Cross). The firm maintains active GitHub repositories, a public Zulip chat server, and a substantive blog and resources library (including the Open Source Archetypes framework commissioned by Mozilla and the GeoNode case study for GFDRR/World Bank). All consulting outputs are pushed upstream to relevant open source projects wherever possible.

The business model is pure professional services: contract-based, part-time, project-specific consulting engagements acquired primarily through direct outreach, referrals, and the firm's reputational position in the open source community. Rates are negotiated individually based on experience; there is no productized pricing, no recurring SaaS revenue, and no disclosed external funding. Customer segments span global enterprises (Microsoft, SAP, Northrop Grumman, Pearson), government agencies (NYC Comptroller, CMS/HHS, Georgia DCA), and non-profits/NGOs (Red Cross, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Hypothes.is). The firm is partner-led, with no parent company and concentration of ownership among the founding partners.

Name

Open Tech Strategies

Legal name

Open Tech Strategies, LLC

Website

https://opentechstrategies.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Open Tech Strategies is a private Chicago-based open source consulting firm that provides strategy, licensing, development, and community-building services to corporations, government agencies, and non-profits worldwide, leveraging a small team of senior open source practitioners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Source Consulting Services

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Other Computer Related Services (541519)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Emerging Tech (IoT, Blockchain, AR/VR, Edge) Consulting (BPAHAEAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

OER Licensing, Rights & Open Policy Support (Creative Commons) (EDAGAJAO)

Keywords

• Open source consulting
• Software strategy advisory
• Open source licensing
• Community development services
• Civic technology consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Professional Consulting Services: OTS provides expert advice and services to help organizations use open source to reach their goals. Engagements include open source strategy consulting, development strategy, developer coaching, project management, due diligence, and RFP drafting. Work is typically contract-based, part-time, or project-specific.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Open Tech Strategies is a private consulting firm that provides expert advice and services to help organizations use open source software effectively. Its core offerings include open source strategy, development, licensing guidance, community building, project management, due diligence, RFP drafting, and a proprietary Open Source Independent Verification and Validation (OS IV&V) service. Engagements are contract-based, project-specific, and typically part-time, serving corporations, government agencies, and non-profits worldwide.

Product overview

Open Tech Strategies is an open source consulting company offering expert advice and services to help organizations use open source software to reach their goals. The company provides a comprehensive suite of consulting services including open source licensing, development strategy, developer coaching, release processes, software development, and independent verification and validation (OS IV&V). Their service portfolio spans strategy consulting, project management, due diligence, community development, and standards development. OTS also contributes to and maintains several open source projects including the Provider Screening Module, StreetCRM, the Smoke Alarm Portal (built for the Red Cross), and supports the Arches Project. They have developed Forgerie, an open source migration tool for moving code repositories between platforms like Phabricator and GitLab. The company works with clients across industry, government, and non-profit sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Open Source Consulting Services Expert advisory services spanning open source licensing, development strategy, developer coaching, release processes, RFP drafting, partner coordination, community-based development, staffing, code-a-thons, developer gatherings, and standards development, provided on a contract or project basis to corporations, government agencies, and non-profits.
• Open Source Software Development End-to-end custom open source software development services delivered for clients in the non-profit, government, and corporate sectors, including contributing changes upstream to existing open source projects.
• Open Source Independent Verification and Validation (OS IV&V) Proprietary independent verification and validation service for open source projects, in which OTS acts as an independent open source community presence alongside a development vendor, ensuring projects have public repositories, public bug trackers, proper licensing, governance policies, and engagement with third-party contributors.
• Non-profit Boot Up, Fiscal Sponsorship, and Grant Fundraising Support Support services for non-profit organizations launching open source software projects, including non-profit boot up, fiscal sponsorship arrangement, and grant fundraising assistance.
• Due Diligence and Review of Companies and Projects Expert evaluation and review services for assessing open source companies, projects, and investments, including due diligence for venture and strategic transactions.
• Provider Screening Module (Project PSM)

Quantifiable outcome

• Open Source Archetypes framework is used by Mozilla, UNICEF, and numerous organizations for open source strategy decisions
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers24 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Open Source Initiative (OSI)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024OSI commissioned OTS to produce the 2024 report 'Delayed Open Source Publication' on the history and current practice of releasing code under an open source license after an initial period under a non-open-source license.
• Getty Conservation InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2023The Getty Conservation Institute organized and sponsored the Arches Webinar on Open Source Software (OSS) Projects, delivered by Karl Fogel and James Vasile of OTS in August 2023. This partnership enables OTS to deliver open source education to heritage and conservation communities.
• MicrosoftcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Microsoft sponsored OTS's Open Source At Large blog series, with the request being essentially 'help organizations get better at open source.' Microsoft was clear that the series would be editorially independent; they did not want editorial control or pre-approval rights. The series covered open source strategy, goal setting, ecosystem mapping, commoditization, and governance.
• MozillacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Mozilla commissioned OTS to develop the Open Source Archetypes framework, a high-level typology of open source projects. The report was co-published by OTS and Mozilla, and both organizations have found it useful in deciding how to invest in open source endeavors. Mozilla blogged about the framework and OTS made the LaTeX source available on GitHub.
• Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017GFDRR, a global partnership managed by the World Bank, commissioned OTS to write a case study report on the GeoNode project's path to open source success. OTS interviewed project participants and analyzed evidence from the project's history to produce 9 major lessons for organizations starting open source projects.
• Electronic Frontier FoundationminorOthersJames Vasile serves on the advisory board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization.
• FreedomBox FoundationminorOthersJames Vasile was a Director of the FreedomBox Foundation and helped boot it up. FreedomBox is an open source project for personal servers.
• Open Source Matters (Joomla)minorOthersJames Vasile helped boot up and served on the board of Open Source Matters, the non-profit organization behind the Joomla CMS.
• HorizonsminorOthersJames Vasile currently serves on the governing or advisory board of Horizons (horizonspbc.com).
• Brave New SoftwareminorOthersJames Vasile currently serves on the governing or advisory board of Brave New Software, an open source software organization.
• Open Internet Tools ProjectminorOthersJames Vasile was the founding Director of the Open Internet Tools Project (openitp.org), which originated projects including Techno-Activism Third Mondays (meetups in 20+ cities), the Circumvention Tech Festival (now Internet Freedom Festival), and Localization Lab (1000+ volunteer translation project).
• Overview ServicesminorOthersJames Vasile was a founding board member of Overview Services, which made open source software powering Pulitzer-winning data journalism.
• Software Freedom ConservancyminorOthersAllison Randal serves as a board member of the Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit organization that provides fiscal sponsorship and infrastructure to open source projects.
• Open Infrastructure FoundationminorOthersAllison Randal serves as a board member of the Open Infrastructure Foundation (openinfra.dev), which supports open infrastructure projects.
• Open Usage CommonsminorOthersAllison Randal serves as a board member of Open Usage Commons (openusage.org), an organization focused on open source trademark guidance.
• The Perl FoundationminorOthersAllison Randal serves as a board member of The Perl Foundation. She previously served as president.
• Apache Software FoundationminorOthersKarl Fogel is a member of the Apache Software Foundation.
• FLOSS FoundationsminorOthersAllison Randal co-founded FLOSS Foundations (flossfoundations.org), a group for open source leaders to connect and collaborate.
• Humanitarian ToolboxminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOTS collaborated with Humanitarian Toolbox, specifically connecting the Red Cross Smoke Alarm Portal with the allReady platform (part of the Humanitarian Toolbox suite of disaster preparedness tools).

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Accenture: Largest global systems integrator with significant open source advisory capability. Indirectly competes with OTS for Fortune 500 open source strategy engagements as enterprises increasingly buy advisory from mega-consultancies.
• Red Hat: Largest commercial open source company with an embedded consulting practice that serves enterprises adopting open source platforms. Operates as a broad incumbent across the open source ecosystem while offering strategy and migration services comparable to OTS's open source consulting engagements.
• Thoughtworks: Global technology consultancy with established open source and platform engineering practices. A broad incumbent that competes with OTS for enterprise digital and open source transformation mandates.

Direct peers

• Collabora: Boutique open source consulting and development firm focused on GNU/Linux, LibreOffice, GNOME, and multimedia. Competes with OTS on open source development services, project management, and contributor engagement.
• Igalia: European open source consultancy specializing in web platform and compilers. Comparable to OTS as a high-pedigree open source development and strategy consultancy serving browser vendors and standards organizations.
• Black Duck (Synopsys): Open source security, license compliance, and management consulting provider serving enterprises. Comparable to OTS in offering open source consulting and due diligence, with the latter firm having historically partnered with OTS's predecessor (Olliance).
• Canonical Ltd: Commercial sponsor of Ubuntu offering enterprise open source consulting, training, and managed services. Directly comparable to OTS in serving enterprise clients with open source strategy, licensing guidance, and engineering services — and a former employer of OTS partner Karl Fogel.
• Object Computing (OCI): St. Louis-based open source consulting firm providing engineering services in cloud-native, distributed systems, and AI. Directly comparable as a mid-size open source-focused consultancy serving enterprise and government clients.

Others

• Software Freedom Conservancy: Non-profit providing fiscal sponsorship and legal infrastructure to open source projects. Allison Randal of OTS sits on its board. Adjacent ecosystem participant rather than a direct competitor; relevant for the open source governance and policy support work that OTS advises clients on.

Emerging players

• Code for America: Non-profit civic technology organization that has partnered with OTS. Partial overlap with OTS in serving government agencies on open civic technology and open source strategy, but operating under a non-profit, fellowship-driven model rather than fee-for-service consulting.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/OpenTechStrat
• GitHubgithub.com/OpenTechStrategies

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Tech Strategies