Dwayne Campbell, founder of BookFusion, has
spent the past 4 years building a digital platform
where authors can do far more than sell their digital
material. The genesis of his idea came before
Amazon and Barnes and Noble had fully developed
their digital platforms and apps.
It was 2008 and Dwayne was a Howard University
student. He and his classmates would often share
notes from lectures and other course resource
material via flash drives. This was a cumbersome
sharing process, especially since the files were in
di�erent formats. Dwayne saw an opportunity to
build a platform that made the sharing of digital files
easier.
He pitched the idea to his mentor who didn’t
embrace his vision. Nevertheless, he was passionate
about the potential of his vision. So, he taught
himself programming by learning Ruby on Rails and
then used this programming language as the
framework for BookFusion’s first prototype.
After graduating from Howard University, Dwayne
began his chemical engineering career. Focusing on
his 9 to 5 job overseas meant that he had little time to build BookFusion into what he truly envisioned. Yes, he had the prototype but
there was so much more that needed to be accomplished.
His aim was to build a global eBook platform that o�ers distinct advantages to authors and readers. He wanted publishers and
authors, particularly those based in the Caribbean, to benefit from new authoring and publishing tools while having greater control
over their rights, content and prices. Additionally, he wanted readers to benefit from the option to buy and lend content published on
the platform while also being able to upload content to their own libraries that they had purchased from other digital sources.
Dwayne had a tough decision to make. His job only o�ered 2 weeks of vacation annually which was hardly enough time to focus on
establishing strong client relationships. If he was serious about BookFusion’s success, he had to leave his job and dive into the business
full time. He made the leap, but only after securing startup funding.
He got funding from the First Angels Group and another angel investor in Jamaica to start. This funding helped him and his team
create a robust platform. This new platform was to support Government of Jamaica eBooks that could be used to support education
in schools.
Issue 3 : January 2019
23