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!