“Before he bought Los Tomases Candle Makers, Bill Peer helped
build expensive ecommerce sites for big companies like J. Crew,
using proprietary software from start to finish. Now, in his own
business, he uses open source osCommerce–after trying a
proprietary package that didn’t give him the flexibility he
needed.“We often forget that it’s not big businesses that need open
source most, but small businesses like Bill’s. He bought Los
Tomases after years of high-hustle corporate work. ‘I wanted
something calming,’ he says. The previous owner, master candlemaker
Lamar Sloan, is still there, concentrating on the candles
themselves while Bill takes care of sales and marketing…”