SPEAKERS
EILEEN GITTINS, Founder and CEO, Blurb
Eileen Gittins has been at the intersection of the Internet, consumer and enterprise software, imaging systems, search, and digital photography throughout her career. Eileen is now democratizing publishing as the founder and CEO of Blurb.
Eileen wanted to create a beautifully designed and produced photo essay book—with professional production values on par with a book you’d buy at the bookstore—but she only needed 40 copies. This turned out to be remarkably painful, expensive, and time-consuming. Eileen thought that was just wrong. So she founded Blurb, an on-demand publishing platform that enables anyone to design, share, market, and sell bookstore-quality books.
Since launching at DEMO in 2006, Eileen has led Blurb from a startup to a high-growth company, reaching profitability with revenues approaching $30MM in 2008 (3x year-over-year growth). With nearly one million books produced, over 750,000 registered users, and a global footprint that extends to 60 countries, Blurb continues to experience high growth amidst challenging economic times.
Eileen says Blurb is the most fun company she’s ever run, which is saying a fair amount as she has lived and worked all over the world with Kodak and as VP at Wall Data before and after the IPO, CEO of Personify and Verb, plus outside Board Director at Qbiquity and Popular Demand.