Some thoughts on the topic of brand influence in open source innovation.
Elon joined Tesla as chairman in 2004, became CEO in 2008, and open-sourced Tesla’s patents in 2014 just after the Model S launched to rave reviews. By then the brand Tesla was catching up globally as a dominant factor.
I vaguely recall (and someone with the book can check) that in The Cathedral and the Bazaar, the Red Hat CEO wrote in the foreword that once you’ve built a trusted brand, it no longer matters whether your product is open-source or not.
So therein lies the power of product when trust and brand leads, the fear of being copied fades.
But I do not know enough about branding power in the open source innovation world to have a definitive take. Maybe something worth looking into.
