When I built my company Clarity.fm, I remember staying up until 3AM designing how this software would work.
But I’m not a designer.
So I used an awesome wireframing tool called Balsamiq.
It was a dream to use. In no time at all, I had a working prototype for my SaaS, the same one that was later successfully acquired by Fundable.
I love Balsamiq. And I recommend it to all “graphically challenged” software founders.
So it’s a huge pleasure to be interviewing Peldi Guilizzoni, the founder of Balsamiq, on this week’s episode of Escape Velocity.
Not only has his tool been a launchpad for so many businesses… but Balsamiq is a SaaS of its own, with a fascinating growth journey to tell.
The ultimate plot-twist in this interview is that Peldi never wanted to grow!
I’m not kidding. He wanted to stay as a solopreneur with a simple software tool and resisted growth as much as he could.
But his software was just too good and he’s now he’s doing over $6M+ in yearly sales
It was going to take off whether he liked it or not… so, he reluctantly learned to ride the wave.
In this episode, he talks about:
- Doing everything alone for 6 months
- The day he reluctantly hired someone
- How he still suffers from imposter syndrome (don’t we all?)
- The year that 5 competitors appeared
- How Balsamiq remains untouched by Adobe XD
This is a humbling, insightful and fascinating story of how one of the most praised UX wireframing tools just took off.
It’s a powerful lesson in personal growth.
Or as Peldi describes it, “It was like being strapped to a rocket and trying to steer it”.
Tune in here for this refreshing interview. And let me know in the comments if you enjoyed the chat as much as I did!
