Luke Kanies, founder of Puppet, shares his insights on open source strategy for startups. He emphasizes that open source is inherently challenging due to the added complexity and notes that licensing choices can impact partnerships. To avoid common pitfalls, companies should find a balance between free and paid features, gather feedback from customers, and design clear upgrade paths for their commercial products. Kanies suggests that companies should not pursue an open source strategy simply because it's trendy or seems like a shortcut to adoption, but rather make an informed decision based on their specific circumstances and market realities.