Entreprenerd
Entreprenerd
Building a Multi-Million-Dollar Business with Open Source Software
About the Book
After a quarter of a century in IT, Bruno Lowagie (°1970) decided to share his experience in a book.
Entreprenerd is the chronicle of his personal story as a software developer and entrepreneur against the backdrop of a fast-paced technological evolution. From overcoming his fear of going into business to bootstrapping a multi-million-dollar company, this compelling memoir is perfect for anyone who is invested in building a business with innovative technology.
“Bruno wrote an incredible book on his COSS journey. Mandatory reading for technical founders!”—Joseph “JJ” Jacks, Founder at OSS Capital and Open Core Summit
“This untold-saga about a developer and his project is a significant contribution to the open-source ecosystem.”—Amelia Eiras, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Tomitribe
“Entreprenerd is a great case study on how to develop an innovative business with cutting-edge technology.”—Leonard Rosenthol, Senior Principal Scientist and PDF Architect at Adobe Systems
“Bruno shares his profound experiences as a technical founder ... you will discover the life stages of an entrepreneur and his business.”—Dilip Thomas, Founder at Wurreka and Developer Summit
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction
- Foreword
- Milestones
- Creating iText
- Creating a Business Model for iText
- Growing the Business for iText
- Selling the iText Business
- Leaving the iText Business
- About This Book
- Personal Testimonial
Part I: Failing Forward
- Chapter 1: High School
- Brief History of My Hometown
- My First Computer: the TI-99/4A
- My Second Computer: the TRS-80 Model 4P
- Writing Computer Games
- Writing Business Applications
- My First Business
- Chapter 2: College
- Art or Engineering?
- A Movie Romance
- Failing My Third Year
- Ingeborg to the Rescue
- Rediscovering a Hobby
- Postponed Graduation
- Chapter 3: Internship
- Jack of All Trades, Master of None
- “Only Losers Don’t Find a Job”
- Geographic Information Systems
- From Trainee to Trainer
- Leading the CyberCity Project
- My First Contract with TRASYS
- Chapter 4: Early Career
- Working for TRASYS (Part 1)
- Failure #2: the Belgium Applet
- Working for The Reference
- Working for TRASYS (Part 2)
- Failure #3: Perl Server Pages
- Working for Ghent University
- Failure #4: cat@loogje.com
- Finding My Purpose
- Chapter 5: My First PDF Library
- The Camelot Paper
- Adobe Acrobat
- The Portable Document Format
- In Search of a PDF Library
- The Problem with rugPdf
- Chapter 6: The Birth of iText
- Basic Building Blocks
- Different Writer Objects
- Creating PDF, HTML, RTF in Five Steps
- The Difference with Apache FOP
- Choosing a Name
- My Thirtieth Birthday
- Chapter 7: Frustrations
- No Promotion (Part 1)
- Civil Disobedience
- No Promotion (Part 2)
- Working for JCS
- A Future for iText
Part II: Building Free and Open Source Software
- Chapter 8: Free Software
- Homebrew Computers
- An Open Letter to Hobbyists
- Copyright and Software Licenses
- The GNU Manifesto
- The GNU General Public License
- The GNU Operating System with a Linux Kernel
- Linux and the Internet
- Chapter 9: Open Source Software
- The Cathedral and the Bazaar
- “Let’s Call It Open Source”
- The Open Source Initiative
- Open Source versus Free Software
- iText, Free and Open Source PDF Software
- Promotion and Propagation of iText
- Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
- Three Missions for iText
- Chapter 10: iText in Action
- Documentation Needed!
- A Tutorial Funded by Competitors
- Book Contract Offers
- Signing a Book Contract
- The Development Phase
- The Review Process
- Go or No Go?
- The Production Phase
- From Idea to Book
- Book Sales
- Intangible Rewards
- Mission 1: Accomplished
- Chapter 11: Intellectual Property
- Eclipse Simultaneous Release
- Research Project
- Green Code
- Yellow Code
- Code from Third-Party Developers
- Code from Third-Party Projects
- Red Code
- Example 1: JavaWorld’s Java Tips
- Example 2: Java Advanced Imaging
- Example 3: Encapsulated PostScript
- Example 4: IntHashtable
- Example 5: RC4
- Mission 2: Accomplished
- Chapter 12: 1T3XT BVBA
- First M&A Opportunity
- Social Security Contributions
- The First iText Company
- Near Failure
- Mission 3: Failed
- Chapter 13: iText Software Corporation
- Our First Customers
- Our First Product
- Our First Salespeople
- The Problem with the (L)GPL
- The Affero General Public License
- Dual Licensing
- From Version 2 to Version 5
- iText in Action (Second Edition)
- Need for Dedicated Developers
- Chapter 14: Bootstrapping
- Bootstrapping or Venture Capital?
- iBoot by IBBT
- First Trip to the US
- A Failed Merger Attempt
- Wil-Low BVBA (Version 1)
- Second M&A Opportunity
- First Valuation
- Chapter 15: iText Software BVBA
- The Limitations of Salespeople on Commission
- Our First Employees on Payroll
- My First Visit to Adobe
- Reading the Meeting
- International Standards for PDF
- Mission 3: Accomplished
- Chapter 16: Monetizing Open Source
- Four Generations of FOSS
- Making Money with FOSS
- Donations
- Using Ads
- Selling Documentation
- Selling Support and Maintenance
- Offering Professional Services
- Selling Licenses
- Using the Open Core Model
- Offering a Service Built on Top of FOSS
- What Is Success?
- Thinking of Selling the Business
- Chapter 17: Lessons Learned
- Lesson #1: “There are as many diagnoses as there are specialists”
- Lesson #2: “Everybody lies”
- Lesson #3: “Tests take time; treatment is quicker”
- A New Challenge
Part III: From Start-up to Exit
- Chapter 18: Dilemmas
- Project IQ
- A Clear Deadline
- Meeting with Venture Capitalists
- Establishing a Relationship with a VC
- The Founder’s Dilemmas
- Comparing 1T3XT with Acquia
- Founders
- Hires
- Investors
- Successors
- Switching from Control Decisions to Wealth Decisions
- Chapter 19: A Strategy for iText
- Our Options (Part 1)
- Option 0: “We Want Out!”
- Option 1: “Milk It!”
- Option 2: “Pedal to the Metal!”
- Option 3: “Drive It!”
- Our Goals
- Patents
- A Sales Office in Boston
- Reorganization of Companies
- Board of Directors
- New Accountant and a Commissioner
- New Law Firm
- New Office and More Human Resources
- New Salespeople
- Financial Results
- Our Options (Part 1)
- Chapter 20: Winning
- Bad Loser
- Winning Awards
- Winning in Court
- Step 1: Visit a Bailiff
- Step 2: Send a Cease and Desist
- Step 3: Go to Court
- Step 4: Execution of the Judgment
- Aftermath of the Lawsuit
- Winning an Audience
- Use of iText
- Free versus Paid Use
- The Competition
- Scores for iText
- Winning Territory
- Global Distribution of Sales
- Choosing a Location for iText Software Asia
- Incorporating in Singapore
- Success in the APAC Region
- Growth in the Rest of the World
- Winning Time
- Chapter 21: A Roadmap for iText
- Project Arya
- Non-Western Writing Systems
- Ambiguities and Inconsistencies
- HTML to PDF
- Structured PDF
- PDF 2.0
- Realization of Project Arya
- Project Tyrion
- Reporting Tools
- DITO: Designing Interactive Templates Online
- Other Projects
- Our Options (Part 2)
- Option 0: “Business as Usual”
- Option 1: “Make!”
- Option 2: “Buy!”
- Option 3: “We Want In!”
- Working on Different Levels
- Project Arya
- Chapter 22: Partial Exit
- Valuation
- Project Wall Street
- Two Candidates
- Candidate 1: A Self-Proclaimed Adobe Killer
- Candidate 2: Hancom
- The M&A Process
- Wil-Low BVBA (Part 2)
- Mission Accomplished
- Chapter 23: Year 1—A Search for Synergies
- Hancom’s Products
- Web Office
- Hancom Document Converter Service
- Project Tyrion (DITO)
- iText Sales in Asia
- Board Meetings
- A Clash of Cultures
- A Side Project
- Mixed Feelings
- Hancom’s Products
- Chapter 24: Year 2—A Change of Strategy
- Back to the Roots
- iText as a Platform
- A Breach of Trust
- Our Options (Part 3)
- Task 0: “Business as Usual”
- Task 1: “Expanding Our Product Portfolio”
- Task 2: “Further Development of External Channels”
- Task 3: “Further Development of the Organization”
- An Adventurous Life
- Gearing up for Growth
- A Promising Escape Route
- Chapter 25: Year 3—A Change in Management
- Dark Clouds and Politics
- The Budget for 2018
- Losing the COO and CEO
- The New CEO and COO
- A New Shareholder
- A #MeToo Case
- My Future Role
- Last Honorable Escape Route
- Chapter 26: Exit Through the Courtroom
- Preparing the Fight
- First Round: the Commercial Court
- Wisdom of the Court
- Revelation by The Bell
- Safeguarding Interests
- Valuation Reports
- Second Round: the Court of Appeal
- The First AGM Attempt
- The Court of Appeal—Forced Withdrawal
- The Court of Appeal—Provisional Administrator
- The Second AGM Attempt
- Penalties are Coming
- Final Round: a Settlement Agreement
Epilogue
- New Challenges
- Writing as a Remedy
- Getting Feedback from Readers
- After iText
- Make Me Proud!
- Acknowledgments
- Personal Thanks
- For those who aren’t mentioned here
- Chronological Overview
- Index
The Leanpub 60-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Do Well. Do Good.
Authors have earned$12,156,430writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
- #1
CCIE Service Provider Version 4 Written and Lab Exam Comprehensive Guide
Nicholas RussoThe service provider landscape has changed rapidly over the past several years. Networking vendors are continuing to propose new standards, techniques, and procedures for overcoming new challenges while concurrently reducing costs and delivering new services. Cisco has recently updated the CCIE Service Provider track to reflect these changes; this book represents the author's personal journey in achieving that certification.
- #2
Ansible for DevOps
Jeff GeerlingAnsible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server—or thousands.
- #3
CCIE SP v5.0
Łukasz Bromirski, Piotr Jablonski, and Nicholas RussoAre you striving to prepare to and pass CCIE SP lab exam? Take the opportunity and get this workbook! With the attached initial cfg files you will prepare yourself for the CCIE SP exam as well as learn SP technologies applicable to all kinds of today modern networks! This workbook covers blueprint topics and provides challenging examples.
- #4
C++20 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. JosuttisAll new language and library features of C++20 (for those who know previous C++ versions).
The book presents all new language and library features of C++20. Learn how this impacts day-to-day programming, to benefit in practice, to combine new features, and to avoid all new traps.
Buy early, pay less, free updates.
Other books:
- #5
Functional Programming Made Easier
Charles ScalfaniA Functional Programming book from beginner to advanced without skipping a single step along the way.
In my 40 years of programming, I've felt that programming books always let me down, especially Functional Programming books. So, I wrote the book I wish I had 5 years ago.
Functional Programming will never be easy, but it can be easier.
- #6
The PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking Book
Don Jones and Jeff HicksLearn the patterns, practices, and details of PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking from the industry's two most recognized experts on the subject.
- #7
Windows 11 Field Guide
Rafael Rivera and Paul ThurrottThe Windows 11 Field Guide is a full-length e-book about the latest version of Microsoft Windows, aimed at those users who will upgrade from Windows 10 or acquire Windows 11 with a new PC.
- #8
Production Haskell
Matt ParsonsAre you excited about Haskell, but don't know where to begin? Are you thrilled by the technical advantages, but worried about the unknown pitfalls? This book has you covered.
- #9
The Art of Functional Programming
Minh Quang Tran, PhDA master class on the fundamentals and principles of functional programming. It contains 20 programming challenges with detailed solutions and 44 quizzes with answers and explanations. Moreover, 84 diagrams graphically illustrate how concepts and techniques work. Two real-world use cases show how to apply functional programming in practice.
- #10
Jetpack Compose internals
Jorge CastilloJetpack Compose is the future of Android UI. Master how it works internally and become a more efficient developer with it. You'll also find it valuable if you are not an Android dev. This book provides all the details to understand how the Compose compiler & runtime work, and how to create a client library using them.
Top Bundles
- #1
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #2
1500 QUIZ COMMENTATI (3 libri)
3 Books
Tre libri dei QUIZ MMG Commentati al prezzo di DUE! I QUIZ dei concorsi ufficiali di Medicina Generale relativi agli anni: 2000-2001-2003-2012-2013-2014-2015-2016-2017-2018-2019-2020-2021 +100 inediti Raccolti in unico bundle per aiutarvi nello studio e nella preparazione al concorso. All'interno di ogni libro i quiz sono stati suddivisi per... - #3
Pattern-Oriented Memory Forensics and Malware Detection
2 Books
This training bundle for security engineers and researchers, malware and memory forensics analysts includes two accelerated training courses for Windows memory dump analysis using WinDbg. It is also useful for technical support and escalation engineers who analyze memory dumps from complex software environments and need to check for possible... - #5
Growing Agile: The Complete Coach's Guide
7 Books
Growing Agile: Coach's Guide Series This bundle provides a collection of training and workshop plans for a variety of agile topics. The series is aimed at agile coaches, trainers and ScrumMasters who often find themselves needing to help teams understand agile concepts. Each book in the series provides the plans, slides, handouts and activity... - #9
Statistics - All Lee Baker's Books
10 Books
This bundle includes all of the statistics books that Lee Baker has published at LeanPub 13 Statistics Books*1 PlaceNo Hassle! All in both epub and mobi formats - perfect for all devices and screen sizes. --------------------------------------------------------- *The book listed as Getting Started With Statistics is a bundle of 4 books...
