tech startup day 2015: 4 failures and 1 hit

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4 Failures and 1 HitBruno Lowagie @ Tech Startup Day, March 12, 2015

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Maturity

My first experience as an entrepreneur (1982-1986)

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Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno19703

Lessons learned after failure #1

Find out what people needShow people what they needYou need to scale if you want to be successful

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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 matureIdeas need time to matureEngineers 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 betterDon’t waste time if nobody is interestedDon’t copy what already exists (ASP, JSP)

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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 peopleIt’s not OK to try to copy what they doDo 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 documentedThe IP of open source isn’t clearOpen 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 startDocument your IP from the startCreate 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)