BoS2015 - Peldi, Balsamiq - Rookie CEO Grows Up. Reluctantly

Rookie CEO Grows Up …Reluctantly

Giacomo ‘Peldi’ Guilizzoni - Business of Software 2015 - @peldi #BoS2015

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2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015*

Revenue Profits Employees

All according to plan, right?

This talk will expose how I truly don’t know what I’m doing

2007 The Initial Plan

Web Office Plugins

No Desktop No SaaS

That Didn’t Work Out• Had to do Desktop

• I took it to 3,000 customers (8 months or so)

• Had to ask my wife for help

• I woke up thinking I was going to die

2009 The 2nd Plan

That Didn’t Work Out Either• Customers just kept coming

• Your dream vs what the market wants.

• “Natural size” of a company

• Looking for a new vision…

• I just want to code!

• Hire a CEO?

Sep. 2010 A 3rd Plan Appears…

At this point it was cameras off, and Twitter silence. This section of the talk will not be available on video

and slides unable to view, you had to be at Business of Software Conference USA 2015 to see it.

This section was spent discussing every aspect of an acquisition bid for Balsamiq.

2012 A 4th Plan!

That Was

Exhausting

Hmm…

Literally creates worlds for a living Sets all the salaries

http://bit.ly/balsamiqpolicies



Late 2013 5th Plan!













I even gave in to business cards!

The “B” Word

do you think the company is the right size?

It’s Working Pretty Well, But Still…• remote working is hard

• hard to see if someone is underperforming

• decisions without all of the stakeholders

• loneliness

• “the office"

• culture evolution is hard on people

• becoming boring

• revenue growth slowing down

• maybe…competition (finally) appearing

2014 Oh, and another thing…

2015 Right Now

Right Now• I’m MUCH better, thanks for asking

• We’ve hired 4 people this year (2 dev, 2 support)

• Balsamiq Mockups is finally maturing

• Native versions coming together

• Another somewhat painful year of transition ahead

Current Set of Worries• fear of getting comfortable

• reaching 20…will we have to come to grips with “the m word” soon?

• maybe standard organizational models are not that bad?

• heads down too long, not doing enough inspirational leader thing?

• don’t really have a 5-year plan

• have I reached my limits?

…

@peldi #BoS2015 [email protected]

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