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# Building on Open Source: The New Product Playbook


- **Date:** Thursday, Jul 9, 2026
- **Time:** 11:30–12:00 (30 min)
- **Room:** Tech Leaders Stage
- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe

## Recording

[Watch recording](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100031-building-on-open-source-the-new-product-playbook)

## Description

Open source powers modern software, but building a real product and business on it has never been simple. This panel brings together people who have lived it to talk about what the playbook looks like today. Honest lessons on turning open source into something that lasts.

## Speakers

### [Cédric Gégout](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@cedric-gegout)

VP of Product at Canonical
### [Dana Lawson](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@dana-lawson)

CTO of Netlify
### [Michael "Monty" Widenius](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@michael-monty-widenius)

CTO of MariaDB
### [Sebastian Kister](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@sebastian-kister)

Chief AI Architect at Volkswagen Group
### [Ignacio Riesgo](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@ignacio-riesgo)

Senior Director, Developer Advocacy, IBM & Red Hat Runtimes


## Related talks at this congress

- [7 Ways to Fail at Building a Platform](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/987-7-ways-to-fail-at) — Michael Coté
- [Stop Renaming Teams, Start Product Thinking: A PM's Guide to Platform-as-a-Product](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1033-stop-renaming-teams) — Dominik Schmidle
- [Open Source Is Not Just Code: Designing Communities That Actually Scale](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1220-open-source-is-not) — Sinduri Guntupalli
- [Vendor Neutral by Design: Building Healthy Open Source Ecosystems with Diverse Stakeholders](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1018-vendor-neutral-by) — Hendrik Ebbers