Mathesar Foundation Receives $3 Million from the Reid Hoffman Foundation to Advance Data Collaboration
Posted on Mar 28, 2024 by Mathesar Foundation
We are excited to announce the establishment of the Mathesar Foundation to focus on the development and sustainability of the Mathesar open source project, fueled by a generous grant of $3 million from the Reid Hoffman Foundation. With this grant, we will be able to build a stable and featureful version 1.0 of Mathesar, invest in increasing awareness and adoption of the project, and establish a fundraising program to ensure the project’s long-term sustainability.
The Mathesar Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, spearheaded by CEO and project lead Kriti Godey. Kriti, a seasoned software engineer, brings extensive expertise building open-source communities and leading distributed engineering teams. The board comprises Godey; Samantha Bates Weinstock, an experienced professional in nonprofit and academic spheres, currently overseeing operations for xD, an emerging technologies team at the U.S. Census Bureau; and Ian Alas, an entrepreneurial generalist with a varied background in startup and corporate ventures, presently managing special projects for Reid Hoffman.
We extend our sincere gratitude to Reid Hoffman for his invaluable support in establishing and fostering the growth of the Mathesar Foundation. His encouragement not only serves as a validation of our vision and endeavors but also greatly enhances our capacity to effect positive change. We are excited about the opportunities this grant opens up for us to advance our mission and improve the effectiveness of data in solving other problems.
Mathesar’s Goals
We believe that the world is a better place when human decisions are grounded in reality and understanding. Data can help with that, but the utility of data is limited by the tools available to work with it. Current data tools come with trade-offs: they lock their users into their ecosystem, don’t let users have full control over their own data, and are often inflexible and difficult to use.
This problem has been solved at the lower level of the technology stack. Open source databases like PostgreSQL have been mainstays for decades and solve many data problems elegantly, but their power is only accessible by software developers.
Mathesar aims to be a new kind of tool that is easy to use for non-technical users, while also prioritizing technical users’ needs like data normalization, data portability, and interoperability with existing database tooling. By championing openness, interoperability, and community involvement, Mathesar is helping build a more informed, connected, and empowered world.
Progress So Far
Currently, Mathesar is in its alpha stage, with early adopters testing it out for a variety of use cases. We release new versions every month (see our Feb 2024 release). We are actively working toward launching a stable beta version in the next few months, prioritizing improvements in security, performance, and usability. Despite being in the early stages, our community is rapidly growing, with numerous committed early adopters, 2200 GitHub stars, and more than 90 contributors to our codebase.
Getting Involved
If you’re interested in Mathesar or you’d like to get involved, please check out:
- Our website to learn more about the product
- Our GitHub repository to contribute to the project
- Our mailing list to stay up to date on Mathesar’s progress
If you’d like to work with us or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at hello@mathesar.org.
