He had over a $100,000 in revenue, which is pretty cool for 6 months. He says he's started paying himself a bit, but all that money is his, so its all income as I see it. Other than a bit of server space, what are the costs? Obviously he's going to use some of it to pay for server space for his future prospects, but thats a pretty penny nonetheless.
I had an excuse - sorry, opportunity - to use the online mockups app this year to generate some basic example page layouts for my boss. I was impressed by the speed at which I was able to just throw things together (normally I spend about 3 hours trying to remember how to use MS PowerPoint.. ick!)<p>All I have to do now is convince the boss I need the desktop version!
Peldi, I've really enjoyed hearing about your journey and congratulations on your successes. I've learned a lot reading your entries.<p>In your 2009 outlook, you wrote some goals, one being: "I will have to go from 'mr. Do-it-all' to be Balsamiq’s CEO, which will mean having employees, delegating..." - one thing from personal experience. When you make your first hire, you're going be tempted to get a friend you know is good. My advice: Don't. Your first hires will always see you in the light they had before you were their boss, and since you're growing so rapidly in business and life, it's 95% likely to end poorly.<p>It won't be the end of the world, but I disregarded this advice myself a couple times. Staff will learn and grow with you to some extent, friends to a much less extent. And since you seem like a really nice guy with a soft spot for people, then being in the super difficult position of it not making sense to keep working with someone - but you're their livelihood - will suck more for you than it will for a more heartless person.<p>Your call of course, just have a think over it, and best wishes and much prosperity in 2009.
Congrats Peldi! I'm surprised how dominant the desktop version is over the other web-platform versions. I think I read in one of your blog posts that you were too.
This is such a cool story to watch unfold.<p>One concern I have is there might be <i></i><i>too many</i>* SKU's: <a href="http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/pricesheet" rel="nofollow">http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/pricesheet</a><p>While offering a variety of prices is great, I'm curious if some users don't become overwhelmed.
<i>"... was wondering how long you plan to stay a one-man company for. If you are in an accident, who will support us?“ .."</i><p>Peldi did you overcome this problem?<p><i>"... I am still confident that the plugin versions will grow over time relative to the desktop version, as more and more people “see the light” and start working in the cloud. ..."</i> ~ <a href="http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=424" rel="nofollow">http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=424</a><p>I think the biggest insight this game me was that desktop version had a bigger demand than the web version & that you could ship both using the same code base.<p>Is shipping the desktop version & web version difficult?