« A cool guy, a cool software: Balsamiq application mock-ups

Balsamiq lockups is a cool application to quickly, easily write applications mockups and share them on the web, some benefits taken from its website:

• Improve your Usability
• Explore Different Designs in Minutes
• Get to Agreement Early with a tool everyone can use
• Cut down spec-writing time
• Spend your time coding, not churning
• Use it with your clients, Letting them help you bring their vision to life
• Integrated in the way you work, Web, Desktop or Web Office

Thanks to Alberto that forwarded me this blog post about the creator of this nice piece of software:

The story is about Giacomo ‘Peldi’ Guilizzoni, a former Senior Software Engineering Lead at Adobe in San Francisco, who moved back to Italy and started a company called Balsamiq.

His company is actually a “Micro-ISV” or a single-employee company. That is, a guy in a studio. A guy who wrote a product called ”Balsamiq Mockups” which allows anyone to build a mock-up of a GUI: the genius is that the mock-up resembles one you would scribble on a piece of paper, rather than a computer one. It sells online for $79.

To make the story short, the product is fantastic and he grossed over $100k in five months. And the business is growing fast.

Why do I know? Because he made it all public in his blog. He promised he would do it. And you have all the measures of his business (and how much he is donating to non-profits).