I know, it sounds iffy: how can such as small team create, test, maintain, market, sell and support a software company?

Well, that remains to be seen. Here's how we are attempting to do it:

Focus, Focus, Focus

We maintain a laser-like focus on solving a single problem at the time, and solving it really well. Thats why we chose to build small simple tools that solve a small problem, but really well. Focus.

Keeping our expenses low

We moved our headquarters to Italy from San Francisco because life is much cheaper here for us, and we only have two full-time employees: cheap!

Surrounding ourselves with outstanding advisers

We are extremely lucky to be associated with some outstanding professionals who guide us along the way in this entrepreneurship journey. See our full Board of Advisers list.

Web 2.0 really does make you hyper-productive

By leveraging web native, usable software for everything from this website to our back-office infrastructure, we are able to run a lean mean software-development machine.

Giving it all we've got

We are truly passionate about building great software that solves real problems in an elegant, unobtrusive way. We have a proven track record of doing so at our previous companies (Macromedia, Adobe Systems, Think3).

Frequently Asked Questions

What's your business model?

It's simple. We build and sell plugins for Web Office applications. The initial plan was to build two new plugins a year, but Mockups has been such a big hit that we'd be foolish to move our attention away from it, at least for the next year. We also release weekly updates to all our plugins for "updates & support" revenue. Each plugin is sold with a similar pricing model as the Web Office platform it enhances, for an easy buying experience.

We also sell standalone, desktop versions of our tools if people want them.

What if you go belly-up next year?

We realize that you are taking a risk by buying software from a small company like ours, and we thank you for considering it in the first place.

Know this:

• you can start with a small license and see how you feel
• we are well funded, have low expenses, we became profitable 3 weeks after launching, reached $10,000 in revenue in less than six weeks, $100,000 in less than 5 months, $800,000 in our first year and 1.6MM in 2009. Sales are growing steadily.
• Our current 14,000+ customers aren’t worried, so why should you be? :)

How can you provide great customer support?

If there’s one thing we hate it is bad customer support. We take pride in providing personal, dedicated customer support. So far, even with over 10,000 customers, we seem to be doing ok. With 1 full-time developer, 2 full-time support and 1 CEO who does both, we are a support-heavy organization, and we like it that way.

We are also experimenting with a new kind of customer service, one that's more open and collaborative. Check out Balsamiq's forums on Get Satisfaction and join the conversation!

What are your "green" credentials?

We do everything we can to reduce Balsamiq's environmental impact. Here's a small sample:

• We work from home (no polluting commutes for us)
• Peldi and Mariah don't own a car, and we all try to bike, walk, take the bus or car-share as much as possible.
• We hold all our meetings online, reducing polluting travel.
• We give free licenses to non-profits and other do-gooders, many of which are doing good things for the environment. Here's a partial list.

Why "balsamiq"?

Balsamic vinegar, the high-end, aged for 25+ year kind, has a lot in common with what we want our software to be: rich, smooth, pleasurable, expensive. Ok our software is actually pretty affordable but we still want it to feel like a treat! :)

Like a fine balsamic vinegar, our software adds flavor to something else (in our case Web Office apps), requires craftmanship and is made in Italy!

Interviews

Peldi was lucky enough to be interviewed about Balsamiq for the following publications and podcasts:

1. Balsamiq Studios Makes a Case for Web Office Plugins - June 19th 2008, WebWorkerDaily
2. Balsamiq Rolls Out Mockups - June 23rd 2008, Profy.com
3. Show #4: Microsoft’s BizSpark, Balsalmiq Studios - November 5th, 2008 - the Startup Success Podcast
4. my thoughts on Twitter - November 3rd, The Twitter Survival Guide eBook (eBook, paid)
5. net@night 75: Balsamiq - November 20th, Net@Night Podcast with Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur
6. Balsamiq Mockups - a solid case for AIR - November 27th 2008, FlashMagazine.net
7. Un Uomo Solo Al Comando - January 15th 2009 - Il Sole 24 Ore
8. Interview with Peldi Guillizoni about Balsamiq Mockups - March 24th, 2009 - Peter Elst
9. Startup Interviews: Balsamiq Studios LLC - April 13th, 2009 - Antonio Cangiano for Zen and the Art of Programming (also in Italian)
10. Interview: Giacomo ‘Peldi’ Guilizzoni, Balsamiq Studios (PDF) - April 27th, 2009 - Simon Graham for App The Rent
11. Dire la vérité - Balsamiq, société italienne (PDF) - May 12th, 2009 - Newzy Magazine (print edition)
12. Interview with CEO Peldi Guilizzoni about the growth of Balsamiq - May 20th, 2009 - 37Signals
13. Balsamiq Studios - June 12th, 2009 - techZING! podcast
14. The Web Startup Success Guide - You can find an interview about Twitter on pages 25 and 26 of the downloadable chapter, and another about Adobe AIR in chapter 3.
15. Start-up profile: Balsamiq - July 29th, 2009 - CareerMe blog
16. Four's a Crowd - Augusty 20th, 2009 - techZING! podcast
17. Uncommon Interview: Balsamiq Studios - September 14th, 2009 - a smart bear blog
18. Rock on with Balsamiq! - September 16th, 2009 - CIO Happy Hour
19. Switch Story of Peldi Guilizzoni: From 0 To 15,000 Customers in 29 Months! - February 4th, 2010 - Switch Stories

I want to blog about / demo Balsamiq, can I get some assets?

Thanks so much, your help is much appreciated! :)

First of all, contact us to get a free evaluation/demo license of Mockups for Desktop. Details here.

Here's a logo you can use (click for bigger size):

Here's a bunch of screenshots of sample mockups created with Balsamiq Mockups, and here's our low-budget 3-minute demo video on YouTube (high-res QuickTime version here: intro.mov). We also have a little OPML file for our feeds (blog and Twitter).

Demo Talking Points: when talking about Mockups in front of a crowd, I would start by showing our short demo video (download intro.mov), maybe with the volume turned off so that you can speak over it.

As for talking points, I would stress:

• the app's speed, which approaches pen and paper. This is critical because the goal is to try many different things quickly. More expensive tools are also much more time-consuming, and when you spend time on something it's harder to throw it away and start over, which is often what's needed for creating the best possible user experience.
• the low-fidelity look which encourages honest feedback: we call it "a look no-one is afraid to criticize". ;)
• the fact that we update the application weekly based on customer feedback (via GetSatisfaction).
• the fact that new extensions are coming up all the time (Napkee for instance, which turns your mockups into html/css prototypes). You could also show Mockups To Go, our user-contributed collection of ready-to-use UI components and design patterns.
• the fact that we're a small company made of down-to-earth, good people who truly care for our customers' success and who take pride in providing legendary customer service. We are also doing great financially and we're in it for the long haul, we won't sell out or go bust any time soon.

Once you fire up the application, I would show these features: hiding the UI Library and using Quick Add instead, showing how easy it is to add data to a Data Grid (including checkboxes, toggling the scrollbar with one click), our use of progressive disclosure when resizing a large selection (the size in pixels shows up only when you need it) or by typing "lorem" into a Paragraph of Text control. Then, to show that the tool is deeper than it looks, I would import an image (make sure you show the "Sketch it!" feature) and show the Icon Library.

A personal story is also always very powerful, so if Mockups saved you some time or helped you think through a UI recently perhaps I would definitely talk about it.

Good luck with your demo, let us know how it went! :)