"How do you justify contributing to open-source projects as a startup?"

This week, I presented at the 2025 Design Automation Conference's open-source birds-of-a-feather session, and right after the session, we got asked this question by someone.

It's a great question. Many people probably see open-source contributions as a waste of time. But at Silimate, it's no secret that we upstream a lot of our bug fixes / enhancements to the open-source EDA projects we use.

There are several reasons we do this. Some are selfish, others slightly less so.

Selfish reasons:
1. You get free high-quality code reviews from the maintainers (who know the code best!)
2. Once your changes are accepted, you can more easily merge upstream changes back into your fork
3. Once you contribute, maintainers tend to prioritize the issues you file (less work for you!)
4. It's a good way to engage with 10xer developers who could eventually become hires or contractors

Less selfish reasons:
1. You make a lasting impact: open-source is forever
2. You help build momentum around the project
3. You get to make cool friends
4. You get invited to present at awesome events like DAC open-source birds-of-a-feather
5. ... It's just good karma :)

If you're at a startup and thinking about upstreaming some of your open-source bug fixes / enhancements, this is your sign to go for it!

And if you are passionate about EDA, AI, and/or open-source software, you should consider applying to work with us!