3 ms·

Balsamiq Roadmap for 2010

32 points by ph0rque 17y ago

patio11 17y ago
With genius meat and potatoes marketing, a rabid fan-base, and an upcoming web application, I would tell a software entrepreneur aiming to go from 1.6X to 2.5X in a year that they are probably aiming a little too conservatively. Even if X happens to be "one milllllllllion dollars". (Crimety, how much I love being in an industry where most growth factors are multiplicative. Let me count the ways.) Your business does't know that $900,000 is a lot of money: it only sees the percentages, and 56% lift is really not that much when you start compounding multiplicative advantages. Especially because one of those advantages is "is a web app" and they beat the stuffing out of desktop applications so handily it is almost embarrassing. I'm interested in seeing if that holds as true for Flex apps as for my Java app, but I got a 50% boost in conversion last year just from releasing the web app. If he starts selling it early in the year, well, there's a million in marginal sales for waking up in the morning -- what will he do with the rest of his day? ;)
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- seasoup 17y ago
  He beat the pants of last years predictions, and probably wants to do that again this year. Perhaps he's of the philosophy that it's better to set low expectations and continually beat them then set expectations too high and say "We didn't make it"
- alanthonyc 17y ago
  I really don't know what it is, but it's just really fun to watch this go. Balsamiq and that bingo card dude are two of my favorite startups to follow. I'm the proud owner of Mockups, though I haven't used it in a few months. On the other hand, though I have no personal use for bingo cards (and hope never to have one, no offense), should I ever run into any little old ladies who would be interested, I'm for sure going to pass on my knowledge of his cool website.
  - patio11 17y ago
    Thanks! (And I clearly need to work on my branding.)
    - alanthonyc 17y ago
      You know what, maybe you do...or maybe it's just me not being your target market. I actually clicked on your profile to find out what your website name was. As soon as I saw "BingoCardCreator," I knew that I'd seen it before. Somehow I couldn't get it to stick in my head. I'll probably never forget it now though. ;)
thiele 17y ago
The spirit of openness that Peldi has about where the company is now, their goals, and their shortcomings is honestly inspiring.
maxklein 17y ago
That's too exciting for me - too many exclamation marks and too much love for my surly old brain to handle. One more balsamiq article and my mental backlash against all things popular will start. I love the underdog, but not the frontrunner when he is all excited and he loves all his fans and so on. Yes, I said it. I criticised Balsamiq.
- lionhearted 17y ago
  A thought - I just skimmed your comments. There's some fantastic technical comments, good business comments, but then a lot of pessimism/contrarianism/snark/etc on some more general topics. If I may, humbly, let me say that I think this is something that kind of sucks for someone so bright. You're obviously a very very smart dude, but what does the 10-20% of contrarian/snark really add? I don't know, maybe I'm making much ado about nothing, but I get an inkling here that you've got smart-person-and-like-to-show-it going on. Y'know how I see it? I used to do that shit a lot. When I realized how often I used to do it, I cut it out, because it was crippling. Even a small percent of no-value-add critique/snark coming from me made me a hell of a lot less likable despite 80-90% of what I was saying being somewhat valuable stuff. It doesn't mean I don't think the critique/snark/etc, I just try to kill it before hitting the "post" button online. I still write a lot of those comments, just try to realize it and eliminate it reasonably soon. If I must critique, I try to insist on adding some value while doing it. It doesn't always work, but I reckon I get a lot more mileage out of conversing now after doing that. Kind of a hard slog to eliminate that old habit, but it's very much been worth it.
  - maxklein 17y ago
    Some percentage of people are reactively contrarian. Having these people around is useful because then there is always a representative of the unpopular opinion. Having to deal with both extremes will lead to a more stable end-solution. An intellectual forum should not just tolerate dissent, it should embrace it. Thought is just a comparison between two opposing possibilities - and how can we claim to think if we only allow a single possibility, a single way, and a single type? Not everybody is nice. It's that way in the world, it's that way in the books, and it will be that way on these here internets. And don't kid yourself and assume I am smart - I'm as dumb as the next guy - I'm just talented in packaging my dumbness in nicer words.

32 points by ph0rque 17y ago

With genius meat and potatoes marketing, a rabid fan-base, and an upcoming web application, I would tell a software entrepreneur aiming to go from 1.6X to 2.5X in a year that they are probably aiming a little too conservatively. Even if X happens to be "one milllllllllion dollars". (Crimety, how much I love being in an industry where most growth factors are multiplicative. Let me count the ways.) Your business does't know that $900,000 is a lot of money: it only sees the percentages, and 56% lift is really not that much when you start compounding multiplicative advantages. Especially because one of those advantages is "is a web app" and they beat the stuffing out of desktop applications so handily it is almost embarrassing. I'm interested in seeing if that holds as true for Flex apps as for my Java app, but I got a 50% boost in conversion last year just from releasing the web app. If he starts selling it early in the year, well, there's a million in marginal sales for waking up in the morning -- what will he do with the rest of his day? ;)

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
seasoup 17y ago
He beat the pants of last years predictions, and probably wants to do that again this year. Perhaps he's of the philosophy that it's better to set low expectations and continually beat them then set expectations too high and say "We didn't make it"
alanthonyc 17y ago
I really don't know what it is, but it's just really fun to watch this go. Balsamiq and that bingo card dude are two of my favorite startups to follow. I'm the proud owner of Mockups, though I haven't used it in a few months. On the other hand, though I have no personal use for bingo cards (and hope never to have one, no offense), should I ever run into any little old ladies who would be interested, I'm for sure going to pass on my knowledge of his cool website.
- patio11 17y ago
  Thanks! (And I clearly need to work on my branding.)
  - alanthonyc 17y ago
    You know what, maybe you do...or maybe it's just me not being your target market. I actually clicked on your profile to find out what your website name was. As soon as I saw "BingoCardCreator," I knew that I'd seen it before. Somehow I couldn't get it to stick in my head. I'll probably never forget it now though. ;)

thiele 17y ago

The spirit of openness that Peldi has about where the company is now, their goals, and their shortcomings is honestly inspiring.

maxklein 17y ago

That's too exciting for me - too many exclamation marks and too much love for my surly old brain to handle. One more balsamiq article and my mental backlash against all things popular will start. I love the underdog, but not the frontrunner when he is all excited and he loves all his fans and so on. Yes, I said it. I criticised Balsamiq.

lionhearted 17y ago
A thought - I just skimmed your comments. There's some fantastic technical comments, good business comments, but then a lot of pessimism/contrarianism/snark/etc on some more general topics. If I may, humbly, let me say that I think this is something that kind of sucks for someone so bright. You're obviously a very very smart dude, but what does the 10-20% of contrarian/snark really add? I don't know, maybe I'm making much ado about nothing, but I get an inkling here that you've got smart-person-and-like-to-show-it going on. Y'know how I see it? I used to do that shit a lot. When I realized how often I used to do it, I cut it out, because it was crippling. Even a small percent of no-value-add critique/snark coming from me made me a hell of a lot less likable despite 80-90% of what I was saying being somewhat valuable stuff. It doesn't mean I don't think the critique/snark/etc, I just try to kill it before hitting the "post" button online. I still write a lot of those comments, just try to realize it and eliminate it reasonably soon. If I must critique, I try to insist on adding some value while doing it. It doesn't always work, but I reckon I get a lot more mileage out of conversing now after doing that. Kind of a hard slog to eliminate that old habit, but it's very much been worth it.
- maxklein 17y ago
  Some percentage of people are reactively contrarian. Having these people around is useful because then there is always a representative of the unpopular opinion. Having to deal with both extremes will lead to a more stable end-solution. An intellectual forum should not just tolerate dissent, it should embrace it. Thought is just a comparison between two opposing possibilities - and how can we claim to think if we only allow a single possibility, a single way, and a single type? Not everybody is nice. It's that way in the world, it's that way in the books, and it will be that way on these here internets. And don't kid yourself and assume I am smart - I'm as dumb as the next guy - I'm just talented in packaging my dumbness in nicer words.