#489: Anaconda Toolbox for Excel and more with Peter Wang
See the full show notes for this episode on the website at talkpython.fm/489
Appearances (8)
Open Source Monetization: 40M Users to 8-Figure ARR
Peter Wang gave away his product to 40 million users without requiring an email address. Then he built an 8-figure business on top of it through open source monetization. In this episode, you'll learn how Anaconda turned Python into the dominant language for data science and monetized the freemium SaaS model by selling to enterprise buyers instead of individual practitioners. Peter reveals how three years of bootstrapping through consulting funded community-led growth via PyData conferences, why the first enterprise sale came from an inbound request by a law enforcement agency, and how internal teams struggled for years to align open source values with product-led growth revenue goals. Anaconda now serves 40M+ users, generates 8-figure ARR, and employs 350+ people - proof that open source monetization works when you sell to the buyer, not the user. 🔑 Key Lessons 🚀 Open source monetization needs community investment first: Anaconda spent three years funding PyData conferences and advocacy before launching an enterprise product. Grassroots adoption of 40M users became the foundation for 8-figure ARR. 🎯 Sell to the buyer, not the user: Anaconda's free users are data scientists, but paying customers are IT managers and compliance officers who need governance and security - a completely different persona. 🛠️ Let inbound demand shape your first product: The first enterprise sale came when a law enforcement agency asked for a secure package repository behind their firewall. Peter built what the customer requested instead of guessing. 📉 Expect organizational confusion with open source monetization: New hires saw "a box of other people's parts" with no traditional upsell, creating years of tension between community advocates and revenue-focused teams. 💰 Compete on simplicity against incumbents: Rather than matching decades of specialized features, Peter bet Python would win because it "fit in people's heads" - domain experts chose ease of use over completeness. Chapters What Anaconda does and 8-figure ARR metrics Bootstrapping with consulting for the first three years Starting a nonprofit and a startup simultaneously Overcoming enterprise skepticism about Python How organic community growth reached 40 million users The open source monetization model: no email required First enterprise product from an inbound request Internal confusion between open source and enterprise teams How AI and ChatGPT affect Python and Anaconda Lightning round and founder advice Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/418 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
#250 – Peter Wang: Python and the Source Code of Humans, Computers, and Reality
Peter Wang is the co-founder & CEO of Anaconda and one of the most impactful leaders and developers in the Python community. Also, he is a physicist and philosopher. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Quip: https://getquip.com/lex to get first refill free – Magic Spoon: https://magicspoon.com/lex and use code LEX to get $5 off – GiveWell: https://www.givewell.org/ and use code LEX to get donation matched up to $1k – Four Sigmatic: https://foursigmatic.com/lex and use code LexPod to get up to 60% off – BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off EPISODE LINKS: Peter’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/pwang Anaconda’s Website: https://www.anaconda.com/ Books & resources mentioned: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (book): https://amzn.to/3EnCELK Lila (book): https://amzn.to/30VKIpE PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (06:49) – Python (10:20) – Programming language design (30:22) – Virtuality (40:22) – Human layers (47:21) – Life (52:45) – Origin of ideas (55:17) – Eric Weinstein (1:00:16) – Human source code (1:04:13) – Love (1:18:32) – AI (1:31:55) – Meaning crisis (1:54:28) – Travis Oliphant (2:00:53) – Python continued (2:30:36) – Best setup (2:37:54) – Advice for the youth (2:46:28) – Meaning of Life
Anaconda + Pyston and more
In this episode, Peter Wang from Anaconda joins us again to go over their latest “State of Data Science” survey. The updated results include some insights related to data science work during COVID along with other topics including AutoML and model bias. Peter also tells us a bit about the exciting new partnership between Anaconda and Pyston (a fork of the standard CPython interpreter which has been extensively enhanced to improve the execution performance of most Python programs). Sponsors: SignalWire – Build what’s next in communications with video, voice, and messaging APIs powered by elastic cloud infrastructure. Try it today at signalwire.com and use code SHIPIT for $25 in developer credit. The Brave Browser – Browse the web up to 8x faster than Chrome and Safari, block ads and trackers by default, and reward your favorite creators with the built-in Basic Attention Token. Download Brave for free and give tipping a try right here on changelog.com. Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com Featuring: Peter Wang – Website, X Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Show Notes: Anaconda’s State of Data Science Pyston Team Joins Anaconda to Expand Open-Source Project Development Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!
Peter Wang — Anaconda, Python, and Scientific Computing
Peter Wang talks about his journey of being the CEO of and co-founding Anaconda, his perspective on the Python programming language, and its use for scientific computing. Peter Wang has been developing commercial scientific computing and visualization software for over 15 years. He has extensive experience in software design and development across a broad range of areas, including 3D graphics, geophysics, large data simulation and visualization, financial risk modeling, and medical imaging. Peter’s interests in the fundamentals of vector computing and interactive visualization led him to co-found Anaconda (formerly Continuum Analytics). Peter leads the open source and community innovation group. As a creator of the PyData community and conferences, he devotes time and energy to growing the Python data science community and advocating and teaching Python at conferences around the world. Peter holds a BA in Physics from Cornell University. Follow peter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pwang https://www.anaconda.com/ Intake: https://www.anaconda.com/blog/intake-... https://pydata.org/ Scientific Data Management in the Coming Decade paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/cs/0502008.pdf Topics covered: 0:00 (intro) Technology is not value neutral; Don't punt on ethics 1:30 What is Conda? 2:57 Peter's Story and Anaconda's beginning 6:45 Do you ever regret choosing Python? 9:39 On other programming languages 17:13 Scientific Data Management in the Coming Decade 21:48 Who are your customers? 26:24 The ML hierarchy of needs 30:02 The cybernetic era and Conway's Law 34:31 R vs python 42:19 Most underrated: Ethics - Don't Punt 46:50 biggest bottlenecks: open-source, python Visit our podcasts homepage for transcripts and more episodes! www.wandb.com/podcast Get our podcast on these other platforms: YouTube: http://wandb.me/youtube Soundcloud: http://wandb.me/soundcloud Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcasts Spotify: http://wandb.me/spotify Google: http://wandb.me/google-podcasts Join our bi-weekly virtual salon and listen to industry leaders and researchers in machine learning share their work: http://wandb.me/salon Join our community of ML practitioners where we host AMA's, share interesting projects and meet other people working in Deep Learning: http://wandb.me/slack Our gallery features curated machine learning reports by researchers exploring deep learning techniques, Kagglers showcasing winning models, and industry leaders sharing best practices. https://wandb.ai/gallery
Reining in Complexity: Data Science & Future of AI/ML Businesses
There is no spoon. Or rather, “There is no such thing as ‘data’, there’s just frozen models”, argues Peter Wang, the co-founder and CEO of Anaconda — who also created the PyData conferences and grew the early data science community there, while on the frontlines of trying to make Python useful for business analytics. He views both models and data as fluid, more like metaphysics than typical data management… Or perhaps it’s that when it comes to data, those with a physics background just better appreciate the mind-bending complexity and challenges of reining in the natural world, and therefore get the unique challenges of AI/ML development, observes a16z general partner Martin Casado — whose first job after college involved computational physics simulation and high-performance computing in Python at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (Wang, meanwhile, graduated in physics.) But this not just a philosophical question — the answer has real implications for the margins, organizational structures, and building of AI/ML businesses. Especially as we’re in a tricky time of transition, where customers don’t even know what they’re asking for, yet are looking for AI/ML help or know it’s the future. So what does this all mean for the software value chain; for open source collaboration and commodification; and for the future of software businesses? After all, it’s not written in stone that “All information systems must be deconstructed into hardware, and software, and data” and that “software must have these margins”… Will there be a new type of company? image: Pawel Loj / Wikimedia Commons Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Building the world's most popular data science platform
Everyone working in data science and AI knows about Anaconda and has probably “conda” installed something. But how did Anaconda get started and what are they working on now? Peter Wang, CEO of Anaconda and creator of PyData and popular packages like Bokeh and DataShader, joins us to discuss that and much more. Peter gives some great insights on the Python AI ecosystem and very practical advice for scaling up your data science operation. Sponsors: DigitalOcean – DigitalOcean’s developer cloud makes it simple to launch in the cloud and scale up as you grow. They have an intuitive control panel, predictable pricing, team accounts, worldwide availability with a 99.99% uptime SLA, and 24/7/365 world-class support to back that up. Get your $100 credit at do.co/changelog. Changelog++ – You love our content and you want to take it to the next level by showing your support. We’ll take you closer to the metal with no ads, extended episodes, outtakes, bonus content, a deep discount in our merch store (soon), and more to come. Let’s do this! Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com. Rollbar – We move fast and fix things because of Rollbar. Resolve errors in minutes. Deploy with confidence. Learn more at rollbar.com/changelog. Featuring: Peter Wang – Website, X Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Show Notes: Anaconda PyData NumFOCUS Jupyter Numba JAX Masakhane Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!
#34: Continuum: Scientific Python and The Business of Open Source
See the full show notes for this episode on the website at talkpython.fm/34