Speaker
Description
This is a story about rejection, persistence, and what it actually takes to go from your first open source PR to becoming a trusted contributor.
I started contributing to CNCF projects at 16, beginning with Meshery where I learned the fundamentals of open source culture. I then tried contributing to Backstage, which did not click for me due to its complexity, and learned an important lesson about finding the right project fit instead of forcing it.
Everything changed when I found PipeCD, a CD focused CNCF project. I went all in, contributed consistently over months, and eventually became an org member at 17. Along the way open source gave me a lot back, a Linux Foundation travel fund scholarship to Europe, the Dan Kohn Scholarship for KubeCon India, and a Linux Foundation Lift scholarship. I was even shortlisted for an LFX Mentorship and the only thing that stopped me was an age restriction.
This talk will walk through the real journey, the setbacks included, and break it down into a practical, repeatable playbook anyone can actually use. How to pick the right project. Why starting with documentation and small fixes matters more than people think. How to build trust with maintainers over time instead of trying to rush it. And the common mistakes first timers make like spamming PRs or over tagging maintainers.
This talk is for students, early career engineers, or anyone who has wanted to get into open source but did not know where to start. It directly speaks to building contribution pathways for newcomers, a core focus of the open source community track.
Session author's bio
Ayush More is a 17 year old DevRel intern at Sherlocks.ai and an open source org member at PipeCD, a CNCF project. He started contributing to CNCF projects at 16 and has since received the Linux Foundation travel fund scholarship to Europe, the Dan Kohn Scholarship for KubeCon India, and a Linux Foundation Lift scholarship for his open source contributions. He recently built and led a community initiative around KubeCon India 2026, including hosting a free live session for first-time attendees with a PipeCD maintainer. He is also a GraphQL Ambassador currently contributing to the official GraphQL website. He is passionate about making open source and the cloud native ecosystem more accessible to students and early career engineers who do not know where to start.
Any other info we should know?
The audience will walk away with a clear, repeatable framework for getting started in open source, including how to pick the right first project, how to make a meaningful first contribution, and how to build credibility with maintainers over time. The talk is non technical in nature, it focuses on the journey, mindset and process of contributing rather than deep code walkthroughs, making it accessible to complete beginners while still being relevant for early career engineers looking to get more involved. I would love for this to be interactive, I plan to open the floor for a short Q&A at the end so attendees can ask specific questions about their own situations, whether that is finding a project, dealing with rejection, or understanding maintainer expectations.
| Level of Difficulty | Beginner |
|---|---|
| Agree to Privacy Policy and Notice | I agree |
| Social Media | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayush-more-3b4154341/ |
| In Person Attendance | In-person |
| Please confirm that there are included headshots of all speakers in their profiles | Yes |