
Balsamiq Roadmap for 2010 - ph0rque
http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2010/01/03/balsamiq-roadmap-for-2010/
======
patio11
With genius meat and potatoes marketing, a rabid fan-base, and an upcoming web
application, I would tell a software entrepreneur aiming to go from 1.6X to
2.5X in a year that they are probably aiming a little too conservatively. Even
if X happens to be "one milllllllllion dollars".

(Crimety, how much I love being in an industry where most growth factors are
multiplicative. Let me count the ways.)

Your business does't know that $900,000 is a lot of money: it only sees the
percentages, and 56% lift is really not that much when you start compounding
multiplicative advantages.

Especially because one of those advantages is "is a web app" and they beat the
stuffing out of desktop applications so handily it is almost embarrassing. I'm
interested in seeing if that holds as true for Flex apps as for my Java app,
but I got a 50% boost in conversion last year just from releasing the web app.

If he starts selling it early in the year, well, there's a million in marginal
sales for waking up in the morning -- what will he do with the rest of his
day? ;)

~~~
alanthonyc
I really don't know what it is, but it's just really _fun_ to watch this go.
Balsamiq and that bingo card dude are two of my favorite startups to follow.
I'm the proud owner of _Mockups_ , though I haven't used it in a few months.
On the other hand, though I have no personal use for bingo cards (and hope
never to have one, no offense), should I ever run into any little old ladies
who would be interested, I'm for sure going to pass on my knowledge of his
cool website.

~~~
patio11
Thanks! (And I clearly need to work on my branding.)

~~~
alanthonyc
You know what, maybe you do...or maybe it's just me not being your target
market. I actually clicked on your profile to find out what your website name
was. As soon as I saw "BingoCardCreator," I knew that I'd seen it before.
Somehow I couldn't get it to stick in my head. I'll probably never forget it
now though. ;)

------
thiele
The spirit of openness that Peldi has about where the company is now, their
goals, and their shortcomings is honestly inspiring.

------
maxklein
That's too exciting for me - too many exclamation marks and too much love for
my surly old brain to handle. One more balsamiq article and my mental backlash
against all things popular will start. I love the underdog, but not the
frontrunner when he is all excited and he loves all his fans and so on. Yes, I
said it. I criticised Balsamiq.

~~~
lionhearted
A thought - I just skimmed your comments. There's some fantastic technical
comments, good business comments, but then a lot of
pessimism/contrarianism/snark/etc on some more general topics.

If I may, humbly, let me say that I think this is something that kind of sucks
for someone so bright. You're obviously a very very smart dude, but what does
the 10-20% of contrarian/snark really add?

I don't know, maybe I'm making much ado about nothing, but I get an inkling
here that you've got smart-person-and-like-to-show-it going on. Y'know how I
see it? I used to do that shit _a lot_. When I realized how often I used to do
it, I cut it out, because it was crippling. Even a small percent of no-value-
add critique/snark coming from me made me a hell of a lot less likable despite
80-90% of what I was saying being somewhat valuable stuff.

It doesn't mean I don't think the critique/snark/etc, I just try to kill it
before hitting the "post" button online. I still write a lot of those
comments, just try to realize it and eliminate it reasonably soon. If I must
critique, I try to insist on adding some value while doing it. It doesn't
always work, but I reckon I get a lot more mileage out of conversing now after
doing that. Kind of a hard slog to eliminate that old habit, but it's very
much been worth it.

~~~
maxklein
Some percentage of people are reactively contrarian. Having these people
around is useful because then there is always a representative of the
unpopular opinion. Having to deal with both extremes will lead to a more
stable end-solution.

An intellectual forum should not just tolerate dissent, it should embrace it.
Thought is just a comparison between two opposing possibilities - and how can
we claim to think if we only allow a single possibility, a single way, and a
single type?

Not everybody is nice. It's that way in the world, it's that way in the books,
and it will be that way on these here internets.

And don't kid yourself and assume I am smart - I'm as dumb as the next guy -
I'm just talented in packaging my dumbness in nicer words.

