Balsamiq - A look back at 2008 (opens in new tab)

In your 2009 outlook, you wrote some goals, one being: "I will have to go from 'mr. Do-it-all' to be Balsamiq’s CEO, which will mean having employees, delegating..." - one thing from personal experience. When you make your first hire, you're going be tempted to get a friend you know is good. My advice: Don't. Your first hires will always see you in the light they had before you were their boss, and since you're growing so rapidly in business and life, it's 95% likely to end poorly.

It won't be the end of the world, but I disregarded this advice myself a couple times. Staff will learn and grow with you to some extent, friends to a much less extent. And since you seem like a really nice guy with a soft spot for people, then being in the super difficult position of it not making sense to keep working with someone - but you're their livelihood - will suck more for you than it will for a more heartless person.

Your call of course, just have a think over it, and best wishes and much prosperity in 2009.

One concern I have is there might be too many* SKU's: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/pricesheet

While offering a variety of prices is great, I'm curious if some users don't become overwhelmed.

Peldi did you overcome this problem?

"... I am still confident that the plugin versions will grow over time relative to the desktop version, as more and more people “see the light” and start working in the cloud. ..." ~ http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=424

I think the biggest insight this game me was that desktop version had a bigger demand than the web version & that you could ship both using the same code base.

Is shipping the desktop version & web version difficult?

All I have to do now is convince the boss I need the desktop version!