four failures and one hit
Post on 18-Jul-2015
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© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
4 Failures and 1 HitBruno Lowagie @ Tech Startup Day, March 12, 2015
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Maturity
My first experience as an entrepreneur (1982-1986)
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno19703
Lessons learned after failure #1
Find out what people need
Show people what they need
You need to scale if you want to be successful
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Timing
The Belgium Applet (1996)
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno19705
Lessons learned after failure #2
Technology needs time to mature
Ideas need time to mature
Engineers are usually bad at marketing their ideas
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Market
PERL Server Pages (1998)
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno19707
Lessons learned after failure #3
Perl: what we do ourselves, we do better
Don’t waste time if nobody is interested
Don’t copy what already exists (ASP, JSP)
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Passion
Cat@loogje.com (2000-2002)
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno19709
Lessons Learned after failure #4
It’s OK to look up to successful people
It’s not OK to try to copy what they do
Do something you’re passionate about
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Be Innovative!
Bringing PDF to the Web with iText
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno197011
Fighting the FUD
Open source is not documented
The IP of open source isn’t clear
Open source isn’t backed by a company
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Focus and discipline
Book (2006), IP review (2007), Company (2008)
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno197013
Lessons learned
Document your product from the start
Document your IP from the start
Create a company from the start
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Be disruptive
Eventually, you’ll win…
© 2015, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA
Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno197015
Conclusion
If you have built castles in the air,your work need not be lost;that is where they should be.Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden; or, Life in the Woods” (1854)
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