Quentin de Quelen on Embracing Open Source and Evolving Leadership in Tech | Ep 1048

Summary

The Digital Executive – Ep. 1048: Quentin de Quelen on Embracing Open Source and Evolving Leadership in Tech

Overview:
In this engaging 10-minute episode, host Brian from Coruzant Technologies interviews Quentin de Quelen, CEO of Meilisearch, exploring Quentin's journey from his roots in rural Brittany, France, to leading a global open-source search technology company. The conversation delves into the influence of Quentin’s upbringing, the evolving demands of tech leadership, strategic choices around open source, and the rapidly changing landscape of search technology.

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Quentin’s Origins: Building Things That Matter

[00:57 – 01:59]

• Influence of Family Roots: Quentin shares how growing up in a small village in Brittany, with a father in carpentry, instilled a passion for creation and meaningful work.
  • "Carpentry is like building, not only building houses, but about building things that matter for people. ... Creating houses is like creating code is like creating a company." – Quentin de Quelen [01:24]
• Coding and Constructing: The transition from making physical structures to crafting software—both are vehicles for positive impact.

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Evolving Leadership in Tech

[02:34 – 03:27]

• Constant Role Evolution: Quentin emphasizes the necessity of adaptability as a founder and leader.
  • "You have to change your role every three to six months. ... Never be stuck on a role and know that we should evolve very often and nothing is written in stone." – Quentin de Quelen [02:34]
• Broadening Scope: His personal journey—from developer to manager, product, sales, and possibly further roles—demonstrates how tech leaders benefit from continuous growth and flexibility.
• Key Takeaway: Stagnation is antithetical to growth—embrace change and expect your role to constantly shift.

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Open Source at the Heart of Meilisearch

[03:27 – 06:01]

• Purposeful Open Source: Open source isn’t a panacea; it should serve a clear strategy.
  • "Open source is not always the way to do things. ... It should be in the strategy of the company from the hub and it should be used for something." – Quentin de Quelen [04:01]
• Democratizing Access: The Meilisearch vision was to create high-quality search tools accessible to both large enterprises and emerging startups or projects with limited budgets.
• Community-Driven Approach: Large engineering undertakings require a vibrant community of contributors and integrators, which open source cultivates.
• Philosophy of Composability: Meilisearch focuses on interoperability, integrating with existing models instead of building proprietary alternatives.
  • "We want to be plugged to the ecosystem of models that already exist because there is plenty of very good ones all across the world and it's not our expertise." – Quentin de Quelen [05:12]
• Influence on Company Operations: Open source principles—transparency, async work, remote collaboration—are embedded in Meilisearch’s culture.
  • "We are a fully remote company. We are working all across the world. ... It's something that is possible also because we have an open source hub." – Quentin de Quelen [05:39]

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Navigating the Fast-Moving Search Tech Landscape

[06:45 – 07:46]

• Relentless Curiosity: Quentin stays on top of the latest advances, constantly testing new search products—a recurring in-joke within his company.
  • "It's almost a joke internally in the company because I'm always trying every new products that are released." – Quentin de Quelen [06:48]
• Rapid Evolution: Search technology now moves at breakneck speed, differing dramatically from just a few years ago.
• Staying Ahead: Success depends on close customer feedback and a clear vision about future developments—anticipating needs 12- to 18-months ahead.
  • "We have to navigate through this by ... listening [to] our customer feedback ... but also have a very clear and precise opinion about what would be the world in the next 12 months, 18 months." – Quentin de Quelen [07:18]
• Unified Focus: Despite the uncertainty, Quentin expresses confidence and satisfaction with Meilisearch’s trajectory.

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Notable Quotes

• On Creation: "Creating houses is like creating code is like creating a company." – Quentin de Quelen [01:56]
• On Leadership: "You have to change your role every three to six months ... nothing is written in stone." – Quentin de Quelen [02:36]
• On Open Source: "Open source is not always the way to do things. ... It should be in the strategy of the company from the hub and it should be used for something." – Quentin de Quelen [04:03]
• On Company Culture: "We are a fully remote company. We are working all across the world ... It's something that is possible also because we have an open source hub." – Quentin de Quelen [05:39]
• On the Future: "We have to navigate through this by ... listening [to] our customer feedback ... but also have a very clear and precise opinion about what would be the world in the next 12 months, 18 months." – Quentin de Quelen [07:18]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:57 – Quentin’s origins and influence of carpentry
• 02:34 – Lessons in evolving leadership
• 04:01 – Strategic role and value of open source at Meilisearch
• 06:45 – Staying ahead in a rapidly evolving search technology landscape

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Final Takeaway:
Quentin de Quelen’s journey, as revealed in this episode, showcases the intersection of humble beginnings, adaptability in leadership, and a thoughtful commitment to open source. Meilisearch’s ongoing success is rooted in community, constant learning, and a willingness to reinvent itself in the rapidly shifting tech world.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive podcast. Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Quentin de Colin. Quentin de Colin is the CEO of Melee Search. Born and raised in a small village in the heart of Brittany in the northwest corner of France, he developed an early passion for creation and construction influenced by his father's carpentry business. Aged eight, he built his first three story, 60 meter squared hut with basement and galleries, foreshadowing his future innovative spirit. After studying electronics, networks and telecommunications in Lanyon, Quentin pursued computer science, launching his first entrepreneurial ventures and B2C mobile applications at the age of 18. He later co founded Crisp Chat with two of his university classmates. Well, good afternoon, Quinton. Welcome to the show.

[B]

Thank you for having me.

[A]

Absolutely, my friend. I appreciate it. I'm in Kansas City today, but you are in Paris or Paris, France. And I really appreciate that. I know sometimes getting to schedule something in various time zones across the world can be a challenge. So again, I appreciate your time. And Quentin, I'm going to jump right into your first question. Growing up in Brittany, France, how did your father's carpentry business influence your passion for creation and construction?

[B]

Very good question. So I think that carpentry is like building, not only building houses, but about building things that matter for people. By doing carpentry, I was basically doing the home of a lot of people. So for me it's kind of the same. When I started to code when I was young, I was only building the foundation and stuff and creating a website for people and not really home, but I was creating something that might matter for people. And I think it's how it drove my passion for coding and then for entrepreneurship. Creating houses is like creating code is like creating a company.

[A]

Amazing. And I appreciate that. You know, obviously we're influenced by a lot of things in our life growing up, especially our parents and maybe what they're doing in their profession. But I like the fact that you are building with carpentry. You're building something for good. Whether it was homes or some sort of other useful object for humans, you were doing something for good. And that transitioned into doing something for good as well when you write software or write code. So I appreciate that. Quentin, transitioning from a developer to the CEO role, what have been the most significant leadership lessons you've learned?

[B]

I think the biggest lesson I've learned, like every founders probably, is that you have to change your role every three to six months. I started as a developer working with my two co founders, but we Quickly had other developers joining us, our first employees. So we moved quickly to developer but also managers. We had to learn how to become managers, how to hire people, how to make a team grow. And then I moved from engineering to a more product management job and finally now I'm more into sales. The thing that is important is to never be stuck on a role and know that we should evolve very often and nothing is written in stone. At some point perhaps my next move will be on marketing, will be on something different, will be much more into hiring key talents. I don't know but I know that my world will change over the next years.

[A]

Wow, that is a lot. Obviously that was a big learning part of your life was changing those roles every three to six months from being a developer, a manager, supervisor, product manager, senior leader. And what I took away from this for our audience is never be stagnant and that's where the growth comes. And I really appreciate that's awesome that you were able to do that. And Quentin, you've emphasized the importance of open source models in driving growth and collaboration. Why was open source the chosen path for melee search and how has it shaped the company's trajectory?

[B]

I think first that open source is not always the way to do things. I don't trust that open source is a solution for everything. I think that solution that open source should be in the strategy of the company from the hub and it should be used for something. For example, for many search. When we created the company we really wanted to create something that would benefit for everyone, not only for the top companies in the world because we were very facing like a lot of companies struggling with their search, not being fast, not being super easy to use, whatever. And we really wanted to create something for people that had money and that were ready to pay, but also for people that were creating their startup, doing their side project or not being able to pay. And we also wanted to do this very big project. It's a very big piece of engineering. We knew that it would take a lot of time to do it properly so we needed to have the support of a community to also do all the integrations that were around xtar. So we did it that way. But now open source is at the half of mysearch and it creates a lot of things. First we are always promoting the open sourceness by being composable with our API, with the different products that are in our ecosystem. We don't want to for example a huge statement for message we don't want to create our own models, we want to be plugged to the ecosystem of models that already exist because there is plenty of very good ones all across the world and it's not our expertise. So I think it's come also from our open source hubs that we want to be connected to the others. We can see this on the business side but we can also see it internally. How do we practice, how do we work together? We are a fully remote company. We are working all across the world. We are working 100% async and it's something that is possible also because we have an open source hub. Every open source miners are working Async remotely, whatever. They don't see each other to take decisions and I think it's what has to be more efficient as a remote team is to have this open source hub.

[A]

Great, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Quentin, you talked about open source shouldn't be used for everything. Obviously there's certain in a time and place for a particular platform. Right. But certainly should be part of your company strategy. I would agree with that. And it also is helpful to save your customers some money using open source a lot of times. I like that you mentioned open source is the heart of Melee Search and you collaborate with a larger community across the world. And, and I like the fact that you do support hybrid and remote teams. So that's, that's pretty awesome. I like the fact that your company's 100% remote. And Quentin, last question of the day for you. Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for Melee Search and how do you plan to navigate the ever changing landscape of search technology?

[B]

So for aspiration I think there is tons of sources today. I'm trying to stay up to date on everything that is happening. I'm. I'm really trying a lot of products but it's, it's what I'm doing since years now or since a decade trying every new product. It's almost a joke internally in the company because I'm always trying every new products that are released. When it's about the search ecosystem, it's evolving very quickly. The search ecosystem like 10 years ago, two years ago and for the next 12 months would be totally different. So we have to navigate through this by doing two things. First is by listening our customer feedback and what they want, but also what they might expect in the next month. But also have a very clear and precise opinion about what would be the world in the next 12 months, 18 months, whatever. And to be a bit ahead of the curve looking at what it will look like. So it's something not super easy to do, but something we are managing at my search, and we are very happy about where we are going.

[A]

Thank you. I appreciate that. And in this day and age, we know that technology is just really bounding, leapfrogging very quickly, especially with the proliferation of generative AI. I like how you're reading and staying up to date on technology. You actually trained for all the products that you release, which I think is really cool. You're right in the middle of that. But of course, listening to your customers and having a clear and precise strategy over the next 12 months helps you stay ahead of the curve. So I really appreciate that. Quinton, it was certainly a pleasure having you on today, and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.

[B]

Thank you, Brian.

[A]

Bye for now.