doing business in the us: yes, you can!

Ferry Building, San Francisco

Welcome Sign, Las Vegas, Nevada

iText, an open source PDF library

Java

C#

Heat Map 2013 — Google Analytics

Sales 13Q1-14Q2: countries

First Open Source Release: 2000

Adobe Headquarters, San Jose, CA

First book: 2006

Digital Guru Technical Bookshop, Sunnyvale, CA

First IP Review: 2007

JRA Law, Pine Street, San Francisco, CA

First substantial revenue: 2009

Golden Gate Park Aquarium, San Francisco, CA

Company Structure

Shareholders: - Ingeborg Willaert (50%) - Bruno Lowagie (50%)

iText Group NV

°2008 Belgium IP, TM, Development

Marketing

iText Software BVBA

°2011 Belgium

Sales EMEA/Asia

iText Software Corp.

°2009 USA (CA/MA)

Sales Americas/Oceania

Board of Directors: - Peter Camps (chairman) - Ingeborg Willaert - Bruno Lowagie Advisory Board: - Andrew Binstock - Mark de Visser - Bernard Slede

First Visit to the US: 2010

Union Square, San Francisco, CA

Tip #1: Start a business in the US

Wall Street Bull, New York City, New York

LLC? C Corp? Double Tax? Transfer pricing?

Cable Car, Powel & Market, San Francisco, CA

iText’s first sales people

Guerneville, CA

Tip #2: Get a Social Security Number (SSN)

4th of July parade, Washington DC

You’ll need it when you buy a property

Pied-à-terre Lowagie-Willaert, Redwood City, CA

Tip #3: Build a Credit History

Bank of the West, Bush street, San Francisco, CA

Where to start?

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Where to find help?

Chinatown Gate, San Francisco, CA

Tip #4: iMinds ̶ Go Global

Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale, CA

Office space? You may not need it!

Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale, CA

Connections!

Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale, CA

Tip #5: BelCham

Manhattan, view from the Empire State Building, New York

Tip #0: Meet people!

Los Gatos, CA

Digital Detox Social Hike

Los Gatos, CA

Pitch! Pitch! Pitch!

Los Gatos, CA

Go to events

Community Leadership Summit- West, Santa Clara, CA

Tip #6: Visit meetup.com

Community Leadership Summit- West, Santa Clara, CA

Where to stay?

Oakwood Apartments, Mountain View, CA

Where to stay?

Country Inn & Suites, San Carlos, CA

Tip #7: Flanders Investment & Trade

Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts

Tip #8: Beware of Cultural Differences

Pied-à-terre Lowagie-Willaert, Redwood City, CA

Guns are Good; Subsidies are Evil

The Fish Market, Palo Alto, CA

What about politics?

The White House, Washington DC

Deep down, Americans love Europe

Castello Di Amorosa, Calistoga, CA

But when in America…

Safeway, Redwood City, CA

Go with the flow

Castello Di Amorosa, Calistoga, CA

Tip #9: Be a Member

Don’t be afraid of the big boys

SAP, Palo Alto, CA

Adobe HQ, San Jose, CA Oracle HQ,

Redwood Shores, CA

Yosemite National Park, CA

Make “Resilience” your middle name

Tip #10: Hire US employees

Boston, Massachusetts

But beware of the time difference

San Francisco Bay, CA

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)

Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. (Winston Churchill)

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it. (Frank Herbert, Dune)

Men who are doers can also be thinkers, but the thinking is done on the move, in the midst of events. (Colleen McCullough, The October Horse)

There are people that fish, and those who just disturb the water. (Chinese proverb)

Do or do not... There is no try (Yoda)

Oracle HQ, Redwood Shores, CA