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<p>Dear midPoint community,</p>
<p>Back in early 2010s we had a product, we had a brand new company
and we were dressed for success. Yet, the success was not exactly
waiting for us in the early years. We are quite successful now,
but it was harder and it took longer than we have originally
anticipated.<br>
<br>
A decade ago, in 2011 we <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://evolveum.com/establishing-evolveum/">established
Evolveum</a>. Evolveum has been running <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://evolveum.com/ten-years-of-midpoint/">midPoint</a>,
an open source identity management project. In theory, we should
have enjoyed ideal conditions to start up a business in early
2010s. The economy was recovering from 2008 crisis, investors were
looking for opportunities, open source was winning over the world.
Yet, originating in Eastern Europe with almost no capital, the
journey was not exactly easy for us.<br>
<br>
We were on a very tight budget since the beginning, using our
personal savings to start up the development. We were aware that
the money would run out very quickly, therefore we wanted to
secure some income. Of course, we tried to get income from
midPoint. In 2012, roughly a year after the project started,
midPoint was ready for some deployments. However, it was not easy
to win customers with new product, without any references,
especially when that product was supposed to be “free”.<br>
<br>
Engineers in our team were deploying IDM systems since early
2000s, mostly dealing with Sun IDM deployments. In 2010s, Sun IDM
was effectively dead. Obviously, we have tried to migrate our Sun
IDM customers from the past to midPoint. The customers liked the
general idea, the technology was there, yet the business did not
happen. The customers around us, the customers that we knew,
customers that trusted us, they were reluctant to pay for
midPoint. In fact, in 2012, our income from midPoint was pretty
much zero.<br>
<br>
We did not have income, but there were costs. If there was any
chance for success, we needed full-time developers working on
midPoint. We had to get the money from any available sources. We
got any paid work that we could get. We were deploying competing
commercial IDM solutions. It was painful from both the technology
and business point of view, but we had to pay the bills. We were
delivering basic Linux trainings. We were consulting. We were
leasing engineers and developers to other projects. We were often
earning money during the day, working on midPoint in the evening.<br>
<br>
We had no money to spare, yet we have to run a company. That led
to some “innovative” solutions. A friend was decommissioning a
data center, having a dozen of old machines that would probably
end up as electronic waste. We re-used the components, improvising
a testing environment. The machines burned electricity like crazy
and they required some baby-sitting. Yet, it worked, and it was
still cheaper than the alternatives.</p>
<p>Then there was a question of “corporate identity”. We had our <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://evolveum.com/preparing-evolveums-look/">first
website</a> running. It was a disaster, but it had to do for the
time being. We needed business cards. We could get the usual
business cards printed, and it would not even be that expensive.
Yet, it would be entirely boring. We had to make an impression,
but had no money to pay a professional designer. Therefore, as
usual, we were improvising. Maintaining that “proper 20th century
engineering” theme, we tried to print the business cards on
tracing paper. It worked. Kind of.</p>
<p>The cards certainly made an impression, even though it was not
always the kind of impression that we wanted. Despite that, we had
been using this type of business cards for many years. As for our
website, it eventually got redesigned too.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">In 2013-2014 we were supposed to reach a
break-even point, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://evolveum.com/establishing-evolveum/">according to
our original business plan</a>. Yet, the reality was slightly
different. We were pretty much broke. But miracles do happen. Our
persistence has finally paid off in 2014. We were cooperating with
partners. The technology has matured and midPoint was ready for
serious deployments. The first serious customers came, for which I
will be forever grateful. The income from midPoint deployment
projects and subscriptions grew as well. Even business analysts
finally noticed that we exist. Our business was slowly growing. We
finally got to the break-even point around 2015-2016. Well, better
late than never, as they say. Quite ironically, nearby customers
that we hoped to win in early years were among the last to convert
to midPoint. So much for business plans and sales forecasts.</div>
<div class="moz-signature"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">In later years, the finances have
stabilized and the business grew. The company grew as well, which
brought organizational challenges that we were not entirely
prepared for. Yet, we were no longer an unstable start-up. We got
the technology, partner network, customers, steady income … all
the basic structure of a business. Now, we are certainly going to
face new challenges in the future. However, now we are firmly
established in business. One decade is behind us, more decades are
ahead.</div>
<div class="moz-signature"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">(Written by Radovan Semancik, reposted
from <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://evolveum.com/early-years-of-evolveum/">Evolveum
blog</a>) <br>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%" lang="en-US">-- </p>
<pre class="western" lang="en-US">Veronika Kolpascikova
<span lang="en-US">Marketing Specialist</span>
<span lang="en-US">evolveum.com</span></pre>
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