4 ms·

Balsamiq hires 2nd empoyee

53 points by BvS 17y ago

mattjaynes 17y ago
Impressive example of welcoming an employee on board - Valerie must be glowing. What a great tone to set for the culture of a fledgling company.
vaksel 17y ago
Congrats, you should do a year wrap up post(I'm pretty sure you haven't done one yet, and you hit the 1 year milestone recently) and list all the accomplishments for Balsamiq from start to finish.
- balsamiq 17y ago
  Hi vaskel, thanks for the idea. I consider launch date (6/19) to be the yearly milestone, so we're not quite there yet. I already have something planned for that day, but I probably will do a yearly summary at the end of 2009, just like I did for 2008: http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=531 http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=531
trickjarrett 17y ago
Balsamiq is continually a great example for other entrepreneurs as well as an example for a small independent web business. Another great post welcoming the new employee and updating us on how it will change and improve the business further!
- sachmanb 17y ago
  i meant to upvote you, clicked downvote by accident, seems to be no undo -- sorry about that
staunch 17y ago
Why not just get a couple support couple people at a low salary and put all that profit away? If sales keep going the way they're going for the next couple years you'll have more money than you'll ever need. And you can always sell it off for a lump sum whenever you want. If you take the risk of trying to build a bigger company you could end up walking away with much less. I'm definitely not opposed to sharing slices of a bigger pie, but in this case it seems unnecessary.
- dshah 17y ago
  As it turns out, startups are not just about what you can walk away with (though that's certainly a plus). It's nice to be able to share the experience with others that you like and respect.
  - staunch 17y ago
    I think most founders (who are not already wealthy) would rather get rich than have a good time doing their startups. I think you really do have to choose sometimes. If you always choose to do the easy thing (like hire people to do things you could do yourself) you're not going to do as well as if you chose to suffer some pain. Scenario one: Pocket $500k/year profit over 4 years. At the end you've got $2 million saved up and can probably sell the business for another couple million because it's lean, proven, and profitable. Scenario two: Spend that $500k/year on salaries while trying to build a much larger business. If you fail you could walk away with nothing and selling the business isn't all that profitable because the burn rate seems to be high. Even if you succeed you've likely given a lot of equity away, it may take much longer, and your share might not even be as much as if you had taken the other route.
    - gwc 17y ago
      That may be true for 'most' founders (although I suspect it is far from universal), but I think it is fairly evident that Peldi has chosen the latter path. See: http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=587 http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=587 Peldi doesn't seem to be viewing Balsamiq as a stepping stone to getting rich and working on his next project in pursuit of some unknown end state; for him, Balsamiq IS the end state (or he hopes it will be). If you really truly enjoy what you're doing - and it is clear he is - is there really any point to suffering some optional pain in exchange for a greater payout at the end? (Standard caveat - Peldi, if you're reading this and I am way off base, please feel free to correct!)
      - balsamiq 17y ago
        Hi gwc, Peldi here. You go it exactly right, Balsamiq is not a 'startup' in the pg sense, but rather a lifestyle business...I hope to be working on/for Balsamiq Studios for as long as possible, and to continue to have a great time doing it. The goal is to build a small company of rock-stars who do great work, delight our customers and love to work together every day. What's not to like? ;)
nraynaud 17y ago
It's a normal company now, with big titles, offices and support :) The fun is gone.
- balsamiq 17y ago
  Actually, I think the fun is just starting! We still don't have offices, and our titles are made up and meant to be fun. But in a sense I do hope that we transition to a more "standard" small business, that was the goal from the beginning. :)
  - MaysonL 17y ago
    Actually I hope that you can transition to a nonstandard "big" business. Maybe one like 3M - a lot of products, with a lot of autonomy in each product division.
tsally 17y ago
I think he mentioned it somewhere on his blog before, but does anyone know what financial software he uses/used to generate the charts and graphics for his earning posts?
- balsamiq 17y ago
  I use Excel 2008 for Mac - old school huh? ;)

53 points by BvS 17y ago

Impressive example of welcoming an employee on board - Valerie must be glowing. What a great tone to set for the culture of a fledgling company.

vaksel 17y ago

Congrats, you should do a year wrap up post(I'm pretty sure you haven't done one yet, and you hit the 1 year milestone recently) and list all the accomplishments for Balsamiq from start to finish.

balsamiq 17y ago
Hi vaskel, thanks for the idea. I consider launch date (6/19) to be the yearly milestone, so we're not quite there yet. I already have something planned for that day, but I probably will do a yearly summary at the end of 2009, just like I did for 2008: http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=531 http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=531

trickjarrett 17y ago

Balsamiq is continually a great example for other entrepreneurs as well as an example for a small independent web business. Another great post welcoming the new employee and updating us on how it will change and improve the business further!

sachmanb 17y ago
i meant to upvote you, clicked downvote by accident, seems to be no undo -- sorry about that

staunch 17y ago

Why not just get a couple support couple people at a low salary and put all that profit away? If sales keep going the way they're going for the next couple years you'll have more money than you'll ever need. And you can always sell it off for a lump sum whenever you want. If you take the risk of trying to build a bigger company you could end up walking away with much less. I'm definitely not opposed to sharing slices of a bigger pie, but in this case it seems unnecessary.

dshah 17y ago
As it turns out, startups are not just about what you can walk away with (though that's certainly a plus). It's nice to be able to share the experience with others that you like and respect.
- staunch 17y ago
  I think most founders (who are not already wealthy) would rather get rich than have a good time doing their startups. I think you really do have to choose sometimes. If you always choose to do the easy thing (like hire people to do things you could do yourself) you're not going to do as well as if you chose to suffer some pain. Scenario one: Pocket $500k/year profit over 4 years. At the end you've got $2 million saved up and can probably sell the business for another couple million because it's lean, proven, and profitable. Scenario two: Spend that $500k/year on salaries while trying to build a much larger business. If you fail you could walk away with nothing and selling the business isn't all that profitable because the burn rate seems to be high. Even if you succeed you've likely given a lot of equity away, it may take much longer, and your share might not even be as much as if you had taken the other route.
  - gwc 17y ago
    That may be true for 'most' founders (although I suspect it is far from universal), but I think it is fairly evident that Peldi has chosen the latter path. See: http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=587 http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=587 Peldi doesn't seem to be viewing Balsamiq as a stepping stone to getting rich and working on his next project in pursuit of some unknown end state; for him, Balsamiq IS the end state (or he hopes it will be). If you really truly enjoy what you're doing - and it is clear he is - is there really any point to suffering some optional pain in exchange for a greater payout at the end? (Standard caveat - Peldi, if you're reading this and I am way off base, please feel free to correct!)
    - balsamiq 17y ago
      Hi gwc, Peldi here. You go it exactly right, Balsamiq is not a 'startup' in the pg sense, but rather a lifestyle business...I hope to be working on/for Balsamiq Studios for as long as possible, and to continue to have a great time doing it. The goal is to build a small company of rock-stars who do great work, delight our customers and love to work together every day. What's not to like? ;)

nraynaud 17y ago

It's a normal company now, with big titles, offices and support :) The fun is gone.

balsamiq 17y ago
Actually, I think the fun is just starting! We still don't have offices, and our titles are made up and meant to be fun. But in a sense I do hope that we transition to a more "standard" small business, that was the goal from the beginning. :)
- MaysonL 17y ago
  Actually I hope that you can transition to a nonstandard "big" business. Maybe one like 3M - a lot of products, with a lot of autonomy in each product division.

tsally 17y ago

I think he mentioned it somewhere on his blog before, but does anyone know what financial software he uses/used to generate the charts and graphics for his earning posts?

balsamiq 17y ago
I use Excel 2008 for Mac - old school huh? ;)