Trivia
Opening Quote
When we drafted a strategy for iText, we immediately knew we were going to need "a bigger boat."
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My First ISO Meeting
I attended the ISO committees for PDF for the first time in Austria, in May 2013.
© 2013, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert
New Office in Belgium
In January 2014, the Belgian office moved to Business Center De Punt in Gentbrugge. On December 30, 2013, Ingeborg was working with heavy machinery to get everything ready.
© 2013, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert
Location of the First Board Meeting
iText had its first two-day board meeting in Redwood City.
© 2014, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert
A fragment from chapter 19 was presented at
Guberna's Director's Day
on February 23, 2021.
This is me in San Francisco in 2014.
© 2014, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert
iText @ Events
The revenue allowed iText to pay for a booth at events.
That wasn't possible when iText was still free as in free beer.
This is our first salesman Garry at an event in Berlin.
© 2013, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert
This is the iText team that went to Berlin for iText in 2014 and me explaining the difference between
the LGPL, GPL, and AGPL.
© 2014, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert
This is me at Devoxx in Antwerp.
© 2014, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert
Company Structure
The company structure in 2013 wasn't optimal.
By 2015, we had a structure that was much easier to explain and understand.
iText Website 2014 - 2018
During one of the board meeting, the other board members complained about the structure of the iText website. I decided to write a new website from scratch during the two-day meeting. That explains why it is a "bare bones" website.
I changed my personal website to have the same design.
In another board meeting, we decided to change the logo to what may be the definitive iText logo. That logo won a Hermes Award.
Eventually, the whole website was redesigned. This was the first time we outsourced the design of the website; all the previous websites were created by me personally.
This is what the website looked like in 2018:
Book Quotes
- When Duff presented the plan, he put it this way: “The main goal is to convince Ingeborg and Bruno that iText could be worth several tens of millions. Then we need to find a buyer who feels the same way.”
- We vowed that we wouldn’t go for windowdressing. We didn’t want a superficial update of our business so that it would give a favorable impression to potential buyers. We wanted a full upgrade of every aspect of our business that would result in a valuable company in three years, M&A or no M&A.
- With every new board meeting, we felt more at ease. Before we installed a board, Ingeborg and I were the only people in charge; we took every single decision and assumed responsibility for the choices we made. The board gave us relief, something we hadn’t expected. The weight of the company was no longer on our shoulders only. We could count on the support of a strong board.
Errata
- On page 256, I refer to "our new companies" and I count on the reader to assume that these companies aren't related to iText. It could have clarified by writing "for the companies we founded after exiting iText Group" (reported by Paul Jowett).
Soundtrack for this Chapter
I listen to music, but my taste in music is questionable. I've selected a handful of songs for every chapters. Sometimes, there's a link to the chapter, sometimes I just like the song.
- Vienna, Ultravox
- Ploegsteert, Het Zesde Metaal
- Prefab Sprout, Appetite
- Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Eurythmics
- Wishing On A Star, Rose Royce