You're either growing or dying: the courage to reinvent yourself

Reinvention Across Decades of Technology Change: Staying relevant and learning as a beginner again, from database publishing and the early web to cloud and AI.

Max's belief that you're either growing or dying has shaped his approach to four decades of technological change, from database publishing and the early web to cloud technology and today's AI revolution. His story offers a powerful conversation about reinvention, staying relevant, lifelong learning and having the courage to become a beginner again-even after you've achieved success.

About Max Dunn

Max Dunn, podcast guest

Entrepreneur, Technologist & 26-Year Veteran of the Creative Technology Revolution

Since 2000 Co-founded and leads Silicon PublishingBertelsmann Former Director of Software DevelopmentAdobe First client on day one, in 2000InDesign User Group speaker on automation and AI

Max Dunn is the founder and CEO of Silicon Publishing, a technology company that has spent 26 years transforming the way businesses create, automate and deliver millions of personalized documents and graphics at scale.

A lifelong technologist and entirely self-taught entrepreneur, Max has built his career at the intersection of business, technology, creativity and constant reinvention. He has lived through some of the biggest technological shifts of the past four decades, from database publishing and the early web to desktop publishing, web-to-print, cloud technologies and today’s AI revolution.

Max’s story began inside a small database-publishing division of the Bertelsmann empire, where he worked on some of the world’s largest data-driven publishing operations. As the World Wide Web emerged, he recognized its potential early and helped create some of the earliest large-scale dynamic web publishing applications.

In 2000, Max and his co-founder left that world behind and built Silicon Publishing from scratch-with no funding, no marketing department and, as Max puts it, very little traditional business experience. Their first day brought both a $15,000 project and a relationship with Adobe that would ultimately span more than two decades.

That relationship became pivotal.

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