Remaining Untouched By Competitors with Peldi @ Balsamiq - Escape Velocity Show #23

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! -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell