Joe Watkins Becomes Omacom’s First $8,192 Open-Call Patron
DHH just named Joe Watkins — Socio co-founder, Cisco/Webex Events exit — as Omarchy’s first $8,192 open-call patron. Powers of two, money where the mouth is, and the top public patronage tier has a face.
David Heinemeier Hansson (https://x.com/dhh) (DHH) — creator of Omarchy (https://omarchy.org), co-owner and CTO of 37signals (https://37signals.com), Ruby on Rails author — just put a name on the top of the public patronage ladder.
On 4 September 2026 he wrote: “We have our first $8,192 patron for the open call. Thank you, Joe!! Good vibes and open source plant seeds. Here’s the fruit. Omarchy is in its season of harvest from the previous 20+ years of sharing.” (post: https://x.com/dhh/status/2095934866814648830)
That Joe is Joe Watkins (https://x.com/josephlwatkins) (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephlwatkins). He replied to DHH with the power-of-two punchline: “Challenge accepted and 2^13 sent. Put your money right your mouth is.” Then: he’s been talking down other OSes, living on @OmarchyLinux, and “couldn’t live without HEY for my email.” (Joe’s post: https://x.com/josephlwatkins/status/2095687228752097526)
Who Joe Watkins is
Watkins co-founded Socio (Purdue interview), the event platform Cisco acquired in 2021 into Webex Events (Cisco announcement). Forbes 30 Under 30 (Enterprise Technology, 2020). After the exit, venture studio/capital work — and daily-driving Omarchy hard enough to write a check at the top open tier.
What $8,192 means
On 3 September the Omacom Foundation opened patronage to everyone (https://omarchy.org/news/2026/09/omacom-patronage-is-open-to-everyone) at four powers-of-two tiers: $16, $256, $2,048, and $8,192. Badges/wallpapers by AIR resident OldJobobo. Watkins is the first public $8,192 — 2^13 dollars — on that open call.
This is not another Founding Patron million. Those seats are closed. This is the public ladder working: someone who ships products, exits, keeps building, and puts cash behind the Linux desktop he actually uses.
No matching omarchy.org/news item for this naming yet — primary sources are DHH’s X announcement and Joe’s reply. For now: top open tier has a first. His name is Joe Watkins. The check is 2^13.
