Why we don't Compete

Silicon Publishing launched in the year 2000 with a very strong vision. Alissa Whitney and I founded the company with the goal of offering server-based rendition technology that would deliver documents and images on demand, at scale.

24 years later, we have attained our goal. It was by no means fast, nor was it easy. How did we get here?

On a technical level, we began by identifying Adobe as the best source of rendition technology, although as of the year 2000 their tech was anything but server-based. We would ask for a Photoshop server, a FrameMaker server, an InDesign server, etc., and initially Adobe’s most common answer was "what is a server?"

But we were persistent. Over the years, we received almost everything we had asked for, and now we can offer nearly every Adobe rendition technology at near-infinite scale. We certainly chose the right partner.

Technology advances through Collaboration

On a business level, we have to make a living, and although we specialize in such an obscure niche, there seems to be near-infinite work. Alissa and I are developers; we don't come from a business background, and our approach is more like that of an academic or a scientist: we glean the precious information we need from those who have it. In many cases, those people are, technically, our competitors.

For us, the Adobe developer conferences have been the greatest source of information, and we've been attending these for over 20 years. Whenever we go, we encounter the leading technologists, and often business owners, of our "competitors." But in our world, these people are much more like allies than competitors. We have many common goals.

Our business, and that of other Adobe third parties, is highly contingent on the trajectory of Adobe technology, especially extensibility. But extensibility is quite often extremely imperfect: many software vendors consider it a last priority. We've been blessed in how Adobe built InDesign: it is literally one of the most extensible software products in history. But still, we have faced the constant challenge of figuring out how to make it do what we want. The Adobe-sponsored developer conferences, as well as those organized by CreativePro, have been invaluable in this regard.

These conferences are a venue in which we simply can't afford to be "competitive." We share information with other Adobe third parties, and generally we support each other. In our case, which is somewhat unique, we hired the leading (former Adobe) engineers from the InDesign team, so we believe we have an obligation to support anyone trying to extend InDesign. It is in our common interest (with other third party developers) for the product itself to continue to expand its user base and meet the diverse needs of its client base.

Promoting each other Pays Off

I'm not sure if this is the same for all vertical markets or niches, but in our world, there are simply not enough companies extending Adobe technology to meet the demand. We don't do everything, and neither does anyone else in this niche. Over the years, we have found a wonderful collection of experts who do amazing things, in some ways similar to what we do, but never quite the same.

When a client comes to us with their needs, we are absolutely honest about the best solution. If we know that another company will be better positioned to fulfill their requirements, we will refer the client to that company’s solution and/or software. I believe this spirit of cooperation is best for everybody in the long run.

I am thinking of this topic, because we just prepared handouts for our sponsorship of the Adobe MAX conference. I remembered, after years of these conferences, that our products are not often direct hits for the majority of MAX attendees: we generally serve large organizations, not individual designers. So in this year's handouts, we gave some space to two other third parties (the amazing Rorohiko and Markzware) offering tools that are more of a direct hit for individual designers.

If you want to visit us at Adobe MAX 2024, we're in booth #763. You can drop by or schedule an appointment.