My name is Bruno Lowagie and I'm an entreprenerd.
- I developed free and open source software: iText, a FOSS PDF library (first released in 2000).
- I commercialized the technology: my wife and I founded iText Group (2008), a company with subsidiaries in the US (2009), Belgium (2011), and Singapore (2015).
- Together, we grew the business from the pre-revenue startup phase to an eight-figure exit.
I left the company in 2018. Two years later, I sold the remainder of my shares to Crescendo, Titan, and Rivendell, three private equity companies backed by Peter Thiel. In 2022, iText Group was acquired by PDFTron. I am now helping startups with technical founders as a business angel and mentor. I notice that many engineers lack some essential skills that I—being an engineer myself—have acquired through experience over the years.
With the book Entreprenerd: Building a Multi-Million-Dollar Business with Open Source Software,
I want to help other technical founders save time.
I explain what you can expect when starting a company to generate
the resources that are necessary to further develop and maintain your technology.
I walk you through every phase in the life of a product: from idea to start-up to scale-up to exit.
Along the way, I also introduce you to the vocabulary that is indispensable when talking
to sales people, customers, accountants, investors, lawyers, and so on.
