For the first three years, I made no money on Laravel; it was completely open source.

I created Laravel to build web applications faster, not with the intention of making it a popular open-source framework.

I started Laravel in Arkansas, which helped me maintain focus and clarity on what I wanted to build, unlike the distractions of a tech hub.

Open source is now powering almost every business, and it's become the norm to release software on platforms like GitHub. I spend the first hour and a half of my day managing pull requests for the open-source Laravel framework, and I'm still the only person doing that at the company.

When I first released Laravel, I was very involved in community forums, answering questions and asking for feedback on new features to create a welcoming environment.

Laravel has grown tremendously, from a few downloads per day to a quarter million downloads daily, showcasing the strength of the community.

The expectations for developer tools have risen significantly since 2011, and if we wanted to take Laravel to the next level, it required ambitious projects and a larger team.

I started with a simple tech stack using free tools to test my idea, which led to my first bookings and rapid growth in my service.

I brought on two technical co-founders who started building the website, and while they were working, I decided it was time to fundraise.