How Blender Went From Bankrupt to Millions of Users

In 2002, Blender was on the verge of disappearing. The company behind it had gone bankrupt, and the rights to its source code were in the hands of investors. Blender could have been sold, locked behind a paywall, or erased completely. Instead, its users did something extraordinary: they raised €100,000 in just seven weeks to buy Blender back and release it as free, open-source software. This is the story of Blender’s rise, collapse, and remarkable rescue—how a tool created inside a small Dutch animation studio became one of the world’s most important 3D software platforms. Chapters: 00:00 – How Blender Almost Died 00:55 – A Studio’s Need: The Origins of Blender 02:42 – Rise and Fall: Bankruptcy and Near Extinction 04:13– Free Blender: The €100,000 Crowdfunding Miracle 05:23 – The Blender 2.8 Revolution: How It Conquered the Industry This video explores: How Blender was born at NeoGeo Why the company NaN went bankrupt The “Free Blender” crowdfunding campaign How open source changed Blender’s future The Blender 2.8 revolution and its rise in professional production If you enjoy stories about failed startups, software history, open source, and the companies behind the technology we use every day, subscribe for more. #Blender #SoftwareHistory #CompanyStory #OpenSource #TechDocumentary #StartupFailure #BusinessDocumentary