Episode 58: Joel Wasserman on Flossbank and Sustainably Giving Back to Dependencies

Panelists Eric Berry | Justin Dorfman | Richard Littauer Guest Joel Wasserman Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Our special guest today is Joel Wasserman, an Engineer at Google and Founder of Flossbank. If you’ve never heard of Flossbank, this is the episode you want to listen to. We learn all about what it is, how the method works, what makes it different from other donation models out there, and how signing up and donating works. We also find out if Joel has advertisers lined up and what the current state of Flossbank is since they are still working on the system. Download this episode now to find out more! [00:00:52] We start off by learning what Flossbank is, what sets it apart, and how the method works. [00:04:03] Joel tells us how he got involved in Flossbank, how it started, and the process of how Flossbank works with signing up and donating. [00:08:00] Eric wonders how the money gets distributed all the way down to every package and is it through open collective or does he have to reach out to everyone. Joel lets us know they are in the process of building their maintainer portal and he explains. [00:10:36] Joel tells us how the funds get distributed. Justin wonders if this is a twenty percent time project and how Google and Amazon feel about this project that has to deal with money and his time. Eric also wonders what Joel’s long-term goal is and does he see this as his primary business eventually. [00:13:11] Eric talks about creating a business and the kickbacks and negative feelings. He asks Joel to talk about what percentage he’s planning on taking and how he plans on using that money as it comes in. [00:16:25] Richard wonders how Joel justifies Flossbank versus everything else and what’s his vision for making it stand out. [00:18:29] Digging into the advertising side of things now, Joel shares how he’s finding advertisers and if he has any lined up. [00:21:00] Richard wants to know what Joel is doing to support people who are not maintainers but who are major contributors to packages. We also