Business of Software Blog

Great post Peldi. Before people get too bogged down in just the salary piece of this puzzle, you should also read Peldi's comments on bonus: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2986673 Balsamiq is a fairly unusual business and Peldi has grown something pretty extraordinary. This is a highly profitable business that has made a conscious decision to be great on its own terms, not on the terms that a Silicon Valley venture capital firm might impose on the business. If you want some more background, go and watch this video of the talk Peldi gave at Business of Software last year. There is also a transcript you can speed read if you don't have an hour to spare. http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2011/08/do-worry-be-happy-peldis-br…

I think it is great that they're working on an idea, but having just watched Patrick's BOS talk on marketing I wonder if they have the right target. http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2011/03/hello-ladies-patrick-mckenz…

It seems like it takes a long time for someone to realize that they don't have the will to see their product to the next step. Or that they haven't built something that's worth millions of dollars. This seems like a good approach to doing what you suggest: http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2009/04/the-red-gate-million-dollar…

Market segmentation is serving different segments with different products; what you're talking about is market abandonment ;-) It's true that it has served Apple incredibly well recently... but it nearly killed them once. There was a very interesting talk at the business of software conference of 2009 by Geoffrey Moore: http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2010/03/video-of-geoffrey-moore-at-… that talked about innovation and how you need to out-differentiate to stay on top of the game; the position you never want to be in is to be "best in class" because best in class is for suckers: it consumes enormous amounts of resources for luxury features that customers won't pay for. You want to be out of this world (or good enough). What Apple did to Nokia is they invented a completely new product that was much more than a "phone"; what is happening now is that 1) Android is becoming "good enough" (even Windows phone, according to some pundits) 2) Apple doesn't seem to care about "goodenoughness" 3) but Apple's products are not an order of magnitude better, as they used to be. They are flirting dangerously with best-in-class territory.

Just got home, took a deeper look and had a few more thoughts. I think the greatest part about these products is the "viral" (for lack of a better word) ability. Someone with a new necklace will have all their friends asking about it... show their 10 BFFs. Same goes for cutbot and name tags. (See: http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2009/07/seth-godins-talk-from-busin… This is something that will be worth noting to people. I noticed you were pretty specific with what you wanted in a co-founder on cutbots. Did you ever consider that you'd want someone with negotiation/supply chain management skills who has done deals [possibly in China] before? Or if you have before personally, even better. Just throwing that out there. Lastly, a good way to get some attention and hype when your more finalized would be via http://www.kickstarter.com/. These seem like projects people would want to fund (in return for something... maybe first dibs?). Good luck!

What about the Atlassian approach [0]? They give the recruiters a chance to prove that they can deliver excellence and if not, both parties know it won't work out. I think it's a good model for the employer and the job-seeker. p.s. I found out about this via this video: [1], scroll for transcript. [0] http://www.atlassian.com/about/careers/recruiters.jsp [1] http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2011/09/from-0-100million-with-no-s…

Here's Neil's original article on the Business of Software blog about the 'accidental incubator': http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2009/08/the-accidental-incubator.ht…

functional programming vs free lunch, free iPad and cool like this: http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2010/02/what-will-happen-when-a-sof… :D (I upvoted you so)

Red Gate hosts the Springboard program (similar to YC, but Red Gate doesn't take an equity stake). Even before that, they hosted the "accidentals", a group of startups from in & around Cambridge (UK). Martin was part of the accidentals. More on that here: http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2009/08/the-accidental-incubator.ht…

There are exceptions to every rule, and Clifford Stoll is definitely an exception: his power and madness make it work. You can see Jessica Livingston pacing back and forth here: http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2008/12/jessica-livingston-on-found… It is annoying, and she seems nervous. Note: This is not meant to pick on JL, very few people get it right, and I could just as easily have picked another example.

OK, so you guys stared at this thing for years, you're sick of it, I understand. Still, since so much effort (presumably) went into it, don't let it go that cheaply. It seems like most of the time, companies buy an installed customer base and/or the team that built it rather than "just" a raw piece of tech. Not saying it's impossible, but if you want to maximize your rewards for your work, take a week or a month off (the project at least) -- you might just want to put up that barely-acceptable micro site with a PayPal button and a negligable AdWords budget just to see where it could be going. For selling the software business-to-be, you might need to find a local angel who you can get excited about getting this into someone's door. Or you could submit your stuff to "Red Gate Software's Million Dollar Challenge" and hear their offer: http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2009/04/the-red-gate-million-dollar…