One-man ISV +

There seems no dearth of inspiration in the micro-ISV world. Meet Giacomo “Peldi” Guilizzoni, former Adobe ConnectNow engineering lead and now owner and sole employee of Balsamiq Studios LLC. You might have known him for his work on the FLV player or his contributions to Breeze Live, but today he’s drawing attention for something entirely different: his income. I am not talking about his salary, of course, which, as he puts it, is “steady at $0”. Instead, I’m referring to his company’s earnings from the sales of its very first product. Three weeks into the launch of Balsamiq Mockups, a mockup creation tool for UI designers, the company was already making profits. Within 6 weeks it had grossed over $10,000 in revenue.

Everything in Peldi’s one-man company is handled entirely by him out of his home in Italy. The only thing he’s had to outsource is the legal stuff, which incidentally has accounted for 65% of his costs. If this isn’t inspiration, what is?

You can learn more about the Balsamiq story on the company’s blog.

As for the product, I’ve heard some very favourable reviews about it, and now I can hardly wait to take it for a spin.