I run a bootstrapped cloud company.

Last year, we joined the Linux Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation as a Silver Member.

I put my own money into enum to make it happen. Because we're self-funded and I wasn't going to let cash flow be the reason we don't invest in the ecosystem we depend on.

There is no business case for this

Let me be clear: nobody is going to buy our Kubernetes platform because we have a CNCF logo on the website. No CTO will sign a contract because we're on the Linux Foundation member page. It doesn't move pipeline. It doesn't close deals.

So why do it?

Because we're not building a company that optimizes for the next quarter. We're building for the long run.

What we depend on

enum runs on open source.

Linux runs our servers. Kubernetes orchestrates our platform. The CNI, CSI, and CRI specifications define how our networking, storage, and container runtimes work. Every API we expose, every cluster we operate, every byte we store - all of that relies on projects that thousands of people built, mostly without getting paid for it.

If we just take all of that and build a business on top without contributing anything back, we're extracting value from a commons. That's what most companies do. It's legal. It's normal. And it's exactly what slowly kills the ecosystem everyone depends on.

We don't want to be that company.

Cloud infrastructure in Europe

Here's what bothers me about the European cloud market.

Most European cloud providers ship products on top of open source but don't participate in maintaining it. They don't contribute upstream, don't show up at CNCF meetings, don't fund the foundations that maintain the software they profit from. Some of them claim sovereignty while migrating hundreds of thousands of employees from one US provider to another US provider.

The US hyperscalers do invest. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, they employ hundreds of people who work full-time on open source. Say what you want about Big Tech, but they fund the commons.

There are exceptions in Europe. SUSE has been a major open source contributor for decades. But these are the exceptions, not the norm. The gap is real.

Most European cloud providers take the software, ship the product, and hope someone else maintains it. That's not sovereignty.

Why I care about this

I've been running Linux servers since I was twelve. I grew up with open source. Free software shaped how I think about technology, about collaboration, about trust.

The internet was built on shared infrastructure. DNS, BGP, HTTP, TLS. None of these are proprietary. They exist because people agreed that some things should be open and maintained collectively.

Cloud infrastructure should work the same way.

I don't think the answer to US cloud dominance is building European walled gardens. The answer is building European companies that participate in the global ecosystem as equals. Companies that contribute, not just consume.

That's what the Linux Foundation and the CNCF represent to me. Not a logo. A commitment.

Being the good of the internet

There are companies that treat parts of the internet as shared infrastructure worth improving. Free TLS. Public standards. Upstream work. Making tools available that everyone benefits from, not just paying customers. That approach exists, but it's not how most European providers operate.

Most of them optimize for compliance, not contribution. They build on open source, sell managed services, and never look back. The foundations that maintain the software wont't hear from them. The working groups that define the standards wont't see them.

I think there's room for a European cloud company that does this differently. One that shows up. That funds what it depends on. That makes parts of its infrastructure free because some things should just be available. Not because it's a clever funnel, but because that's how the internet was supposed to work.

I want enum to be that. Yes, that sounds like a lot for a bootstrapped startup. I know. But the conviction doesn't need an audience to be real.

What this means in practice

Joining the foundations is step one. It's the easiest step: Write a check, show up, participate.

The harder stuff comes next. Contributing upstream. Publishing tools. Making parts of our platform free, not as a growth hack, but because some infrastructure should just be free. Building in public. Being transparent about how we operate, what we charge, and why.

We're a tiny team. We can't mass-contribute to Kubernetes core or fund full-time maintainers. Not yet. But we can show up consistently, participate in the community, and build a company around the idea that open source isn't a supply chain you exploit. It's a community you invest in.

The long game

I don't know how big enum will get. But I know what kind of company it is.

If we keep showing up, contributing where we can, and building on top of what we help maintain, the company will either work or it won't. But I'm convinced the business comes from doing it this way.