Today, Maria talks with Jamie Arredondo, an international writer, coach and entrepreneur who works on spreading ideas that make positive change happen. Since 2013, he has worked with organizations of all sizes, public and private, to amplify the impact of their efforts and investments by creating innovation communities and open source business models. During his early entrepreneurial years, Jaime struggled to launch his own projects. He either lacked the skills or relationships, and he often felt overwhelmed by the complicated plans he had created. Everything changed when he discovered some powerful methods to launch any business on a shoestring and created simple habits that propelled his projects in the right direction. Today, Jaime is using these methods to help other entrepreneurs launch their projects and make them profitable and impactful from the beginning, without expensive investments or complicated strategies. During our discussion, you will learn the simple steps you can take to build an open-source company and how to scale it up successfully through an engaged community that will help you launch a great product or service. Tune in to listen to an inspiring entrepreneur who will teach you how to create a thriving open source business!
Production team:
Host : Maria Xenidou
Producer: Julie-Roxane Krikorian
Introduction Voice: David Bourne
Contact us:
impactlearningpodcast@gmail.com
Music credits:
Like Lee performed by The Mini Vandals
Transition sounds: Swamp Walks performed by Jingle Punks
Where to find Jaime Arredondo:
Jaime on LinkedIn
Jaime’s Website
Mentioned in this episode:
AIESEC: Differentiate yourself with an international internship
Ted Talk by Rachel Botsman: The case for collaborative consumption
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Movement
Brewdog’s program called “Equity for Punks”
Listen to this episode and explore:
Childhood: Jaime’s interest in reading and exploring new ideas and concepts (4:20)
Being intrigued by unorthodox economic theories and social justice while studying economics at the University (5:43)
Jaime’s multicultural and diverse family background (6:59)
Early career: working as a marketer in India for a gemstone company and observing inequality (8:22)
What is Open Source (8:22)
Ted Talks: an example of open source process (15:01)
Logos and cars: examples of open source design (18:25)
How to start an open source company (20:48)
How to validate an open source business idea with those we seek to serve (22:29)
What to sell in an open source business and how to make profits (23:47)
How to build an awesome community: the why, the who and the how (27:01)
The challenges with scaling an open source business (30:03)
How COVID-19 is affecting open source companies (32:36)
What Jaime sees as the future of open source (37:26)
The one thing that Jaime wants to leave his mark on during his lifetime (38:22)
Maria's takeaways and call-to-action (40:38)