In this post to his site Matt Stauffer poses an interesting question around one of the more popular PHP frameworks these days. He wonders "what would happen to Laravel if Taylor Otwell disappears?"

After we talked a bit about enterprise apps on the Laravel Podcast the other day , a few folks in the Laravel community have been talking about what makes a tool enterprise-ready. I have a lot of thoughts about support plans, SLAs, and other such features of "enterprise-readiness", but I'll save those for a later date. Today, let's talk about the easiest-to-dismiss concern: What happens if Taylor disappears suddenly?

This question brings up the point that, unlike a framework backed by a company, a framework backed by an individual relies on that individual's desire and ability to keep the project running. What happens if Taylor decides he wants to retire and be a goat farmer?

He shares the plan that's already been set in place with Jeffrey Way (of Laracasts) being the next in line to head up the project. He also mentions the Laravel, LLC company that wouldn't go away if Taylor did and how the community would fit in.