We coined the term “Open Source Entrepreneurship” (OSE) to describe the philosophy behind Dogpatch Labs. And it dawns on us that while we continue to use the term we’ve never really explained it. OSE holds at its core that an entrepreneurial community benefits from a very high level of interactivity and sharing between the members of that community, whether it be the exchange of ideas, of expertise, or of referrals.

Included in this concept is the idea that a shared physical space plays an important role in promoting interactivity. When you put a real time search company like Collecta next to a social media tool company like Postling, good things will happen, such as the deal they recently announced.

Another aspect of Open Source Entrepreneurship is that we, as sponsors of Dogpatch, also are members of it who participate in the very same give and take of ideas, expertise and people. Unlike other incubator and seed programs, we do not insist on investment, or even a “first look” right with the companies who join Dogpatch, and we even have members of who have been backed by other VCs. We are eager to offer help where we can, and we are thrilled to be exposed to interesting new ideas and people that circulate through the Labs. While we have had the opportunity so far to back three different Dogpatch companies, this resulted entirely from mutual interest between us and each company as opposed to a contractual right. To be sure, this is a different relationship than the traditional VC-entrepreneur, or incubator-entrepreneur, relationship. This difference is a critical piece of what we think makes Dogpatch unique, and a critical piece of what makes it successful.

Just like open source software relies on the belief that people are inherently ethical and give back to the source, OSE holds that entrepreneurs are more likely to support one another than to steal ideas. For some, who value confidentiality and secrecy more than interacting with and learning from others, OSE is a bad fit. But across the three different Dogpatch Labs, we are finding many for whom the value of sharing is much greater than the cost. And the energy that has resulted has been infectious.