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The best indie launch I've seen was the initial launch of Balsamiq. It was played off as "meh" by Peldi but it was masterful. I had launched a product 2 years
by cheez 6y ago
The best indie launch I've seen was the initial launch of Balsamiq.
It was played off as "meh" by Peldi but it was masterful. I had launched a product 2 years before and until then, I couldn't understand what I did wrong.
I obsessed over what he did. Every single thing. Trying to find where he got "lucky". There was no luck.
- dvt 6y agoCan I get some insight into this? What did Balsamiq do? I'm not familiar.
- cheez 6y agohard to really say, most of the stuff will be bitrotted. But, he networked VERY hard.
- Sophistifunk 6y agoHe was all over various Flex dev spaces, IIRC. Not only was Balsamiq written in Flex, we were all building the kinds of things it was perfectly suited for, too.
- onion2k 6y agoIt was an early wire framing tool for prototyping UIs. The clever bit (that seems obvious now) was that it looked intentionally rough so that clients would focus on the overall UI layout instead of the minor details. It was a great app.
- cercatrova 6y agoThat's funny because the actual value proposition of using Balsamiq to create apps is that they themselves are intentionally rough. So it looks like the founders used Balsamiq to create and pitch Balsamiq. Very cool example of dogfooding.
- balsamiq 6y agoEhm...why all the past tense? We still ARE very much around...we just had our best year yet [1], and are on track to do even better. Don't count us out just yet! :) [1] https://blog.balsamiq.com/looking-back-2019/ https://blog.balsamiq.com/looking-back-2019/
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mettamage 6y agoIs it in here? I just Google searched it, but the article is too big for me to read at the moment. https://blog.balsamiq.com/startup-marketing-advice-from-balsamiq-studios/ https://blog.balsamiq.com/startup-marketing-advice-from-bals...
- cheez 6y agoThis is probably a good start.
- Brajeshwar 6y agoPeldi is just super friendly and a superhero with customer support. I believe that played a big role in the beginning, and perhaps later. I knew Peldi from the Flash days. Met him once or twice in SFO, and he has an infectious smile and was super friendly. Once, one of our team was showing me Balsamiq and they all liked it. I tried and it was super easy to use. I went to buy the license or I went to ask how to buy it, and Peldi replied back, something in the lines of, "Free for you buddy. You did enough for the community, this is the least I can do." That was also the time when I realized Peldi was behind Balsamiq. I had had various interactions with him, not just about Balsamiq but asking him stupid questions, advice, and networking introductions.
- stets 6y agoThey are still a pretty damn awesome company. Gave me a bit of free credit and a shirt for tweeting about them. I'm wearing it in my tweet about this post making front page :-) https://twitter.com/stets_10/status/1266158608024305664 https://twitter.com/stets_10/status/1266158608024305664
- cheez 6y agoThat's a nice story! In my opinion, customer service/etc was irrelevant early on.
- balsamiq 6y agoBrajeshwar! It's good to come across you on the internet again, it's been a while! I hope you're doing great, and thanks for the kind words.
- balsamiq 6y agoGeez @cheez ;) thanks for the kind words. I do still believe there was a fair amount of luck involved, but I'm glad my writing was useful to you.
- cheez 6y agoYou're welcome. I still use Mockups :-) As for luck, you made your own luck. Congrats on your success!