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)
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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
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Market
PERL Server Pages (1998)
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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
[email protected] (2000-2002)
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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
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Be Innovative!
Bringing PDF to the Web with iText
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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
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Focus and discipline
Book (2006), IP review (2007), Company (2008)
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Tech Startup Day — Bruno Lowagie @bruno197013
Lessons learned
Document your product from the startDocument your IP from the startCreate a company from the start
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Be disruptive
Eventually, you’ll win…
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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)