What Software Underground does

Software Underground, operating under the brand "Swung," is a Canadian non-profit corporation (Not-for-profit #1203054-3) that functions as a global community of practice for digital subsurface professionals — geologists, geophysicists, engineers, and data scientists who apply open source software to subsurface science. The organization originated as a small mailing list in 2014 and was officially incorporated in April 2020; it is headquartered in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, and operates entirely through volunteer effort with no formal employees. The eight-person founding board includes Matt Hall (also of Agile Scientific, which administers the organization's funds), Brendon Hall, Steve Purves, Dieter Werthmüller, and others who also maintain and co-organize the organization's events and projects.

Its core offerings are a free community chat platform (Slack/Mattermost), the annual virtual TRANSFORM conference, a recurring Subsurface Rendezvous workshop series, the curated "Open Subsurface Stack" of interoperable open-source Python packages (Devito, Fatiando, GemPy, SimPEG, segyio, dlisio, lasio, welly, striplog, bruges, segysak), and a Gather.town virtual venue called "The Chateau." The organization also publishes a weekly blog ("News from the Underground"), maintains a YouTube library of recorded tutorials, and runs a merchandise store — all distributed through self-serve, free-or-donation global channels.

The business model is donation-based: the organization states an annual budget of approximately $15,000 USD, with roughly 25% from voluntary member subscriptions (tiers from $4–$512/month or $40–$5,000/year) and roughly 75% from corporate sponsorships, including event sponsorships at TRANSFORM (Boron $1,081, Magnesium $2,430, Vanadium $5,094) and annual Partner subscriptions ($5,000). Named corporate sponsors include Amazon AWS, Dell Technologies, Equinor, and Studio X. The organization is GDPR- and PIPEDA-compliant, is governed through democratic annual general meetings, and has explicitly stated intentions to publish an open-access peer-reviewed journal.

Name

Software Underground

Legal name

Software Underground

Website

https://softwareunderground.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Software Underground is a Canadian non-profit operating a global, volunteer-run community of digital subsurface professionals—geologists, geophysicists, and engineers—via a free Slack workspace, the annual TRANSFORM conference, and a curated open-source Python library stack for subsurface modeling.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Mahone Bay

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Member Subscriptions: Voluntary monthly and annual donations from community members. Approximately 25% of annual budget ($15k) comes from member subscriptions at various tiers ($4-512/month or $40-5,000/year).
2. Corporate Sponsorships: Corporate sponsors provide majority of funding (approximately 75% of budget). Includes event sponsorship at TRANSFORM (Boron/Magnesium/Vanadium tiers) and general organizational partnerships.
3. Merchandise Sales: T-shirts, stickers, and other branded merchandise sold through the Swung store to support organizational activities.
4. Conference Registration: TRANSFORM conference uses pay-what-you-like pricing model, generating donations from participants who can choose to pay or attend for free.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Software Underground operates a free global online community connecting digital subsurface professionals (geologists, geophysicists, engineers) through a Mattermost/Slack chat platform, the annual TRANSFORM virtual unconference, regular Subsurface Rendezvous workshops, and curated open-source Python software packages. The organization serves as a community of practice promoting open code and open data in earth science, with membership free to join and activities funded by voluntary subscriptions and corporate sponsorships.

Product overview

Software Underground is a community organization offering a portfolio of platforms and events for digital subsurface professionals. The core offering is a free community chat platform (Slack/Mattermost) connecting geologists, geophysicists, and engineers. The organization hosts the annual TRANSFORM virtual unconference featuring hackathons and tutorials, regular Subsurface Rendezvous workshop series, and maintains the Open Subsurface Stack — a curated collection of open-source Python libraries. Additional offerings include The Chateau virtual meeting space and various subscription/donation tiers for organizational sponsorship.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Community Chat (Slack/Mattermost)
• TRANSFORM Conference
• Open Subsurface Stack
• Subsurface Rendezvous
• The Chateau
• Hackathon Events

Quantifiable outcome

• 3075 members with 300+ weekly active and 6000 monthly messages in Slack workspace
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 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

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.

• Studio XmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2021Studio X is a major sponsor of TRANSFORM 2021, described as 'redefining how innovation happens in energy.' They are featured prominently on the conference page and acknowledged as a key supporter enabling the event.
• Agile ScientificcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Agile Scientific manages Software Underground's funds (as Swung does not have its own bank account). Matt Hall from Agile is a founding director. Agile provides administrative support and co-organizes events.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves15 records

Expansion highlights12 records

Broad incumbents

• European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE): Established international professional association for geoscientists and engineers. Same end-user domain as Software Underground, but offers conferences, journals, and training through a traditional membership model.
• PyData: NumFOCUS-hosted educational program for data science using Python. Adjacent: serves a broader audience (data science generally) but shares the community-led, tutorial-driven, volunteer-organized ethos.
• Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG): Long-established professional society serving geophysicists worldwide. Direct domain overlap (geophysics), but operates as a much larger, dues-based traditional association rather than a free open-source community.
• AGU (American Geophysical Union): Major professional society for geophysicists and earth scientists. Same scientific domain as Software Underground, but operates as a large traditional academic society with journals, conferences, and membership dues.

Direct peers

• NumFOCUS: Non-profit supporting open-source scientific computing (NumPy, pandas, Jupyter, etc.). Most direct peer structurally — operates as a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor for scientific Python projects, with corporate sponsorship and individual supporter model analogous to Software Underground.
• Software Carpentry / The Carpentries: Non-profit teaching foundational coding and data science skills to researchers. Comparable community-led, volunteer-driven model with workshops, tutorials, and global volunteer instructor base targeting scientific computing users.
• Agile Scientific: Agile geoscience consulting company whose founders (Matt Hall) also co-founded Software Underground. Manages Software Underground's treasury and co-organizes events. Comparable target audience (digital subsurface scientists) and overlapping product/marketing activity.
• The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo): Non-profit foundation supporting open-source geospatial software (QGIS, GDAL, PostGIS). Direct peer as a non-profit stewarding open-source tools for a specific scientific domain, funded by corporate sponsorships and member support.

Emerging players

• Cloud Native Geospatial Foundation: Newer non-profit under the Linux Foundation supporting open-source geospatial tools for cloud-native workflows. Structurally similar (Linux Foundation non-profit, corporate sponsors, open-source code) but focused on geospatial rather than subsurface.
• OpenGeoHub Foundation: Non-profit supporting open-source geospatial and earth observation software. Comparable structure (small non-profit, community-driven, open-source focus) and partial domain overlap (earth science), though broader than subsurface specifically.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/softwareunderground
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/softwareunderground
• Xx.com/swung_org

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 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 Software Underground