“Astaro makes and markets a network appliance built on Linux and
a complement of open source tools to help prevent spam, viruses,
and other potential Internet intrusions. When Astaro’s founders
launched the company in 2000, venture capital funding for open
source businesses was hard to find. CEO Jan Hichert says he and his
colleagues tried but failed to secure funding and had to bootstrap.
After the company was proved successful, VCs proved more willing to
contribute to a company built on open source.“Hichert and partners Ludwig Lutter and Markus Henning were
working for an ISP in Germany when they began to appreciate the
wealth of open source tools that were available to protect networks
from Internet threats…”