April 1, 2025

The Progress Report

“How fast are you growing?”

The question 95% of founders dread getting. Especially now, when there always seems to be another story about an AI company hitting insane revenue milestones in record speed.

Patience is now a rare and powerful strategic asset for startups, while everyone else obsesses over hockey-stick growth charts and overnight unicorns. 

That “go big or go home” mindset is okay, but it sure as heck isn’t for everyone. Today, I’m focusing on another, less sexy option: go big and go home (to your family who loves you and appreciates spending time with you).

In this newsletter:

• How Balsamiq hit millions while skipping the ‘growth hacks’

• Practical growth strategies based on where your business stands today

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Weekly Insight

When Giacomo “Peldi” Guilizzoni left his corporate job at Adobe in 2008 to start Balsamiq, the software world was already obsessed with rapid scaling and venture funding.

But Peldi wasn’t about that life—he had an idea, and figured he could bootstrap it. He built a simple tool for making UI wireframes, then launched it from his home for $79.

No growth hacks, no funding rounds, just a great product that solved a real problem for designers.

“Our goal is longevity, not growth,” Peldi explained. While competitors chased new markets and features, Balsamiq stayed laser-focused on a single product, making it incrementally better based on customer feedback.

This approach might sound limiting, but it created remarkable freedom. Without investors demanding rapid expansion, Peldi could make decisions that seemed counterintuitive:

• Running the company conservatively and headcount low

• Keeping 18 months of expenses in the bank as a cushion

• Giving away the software for free to nonprofits, schools and “do-gooders”

And it worked.

Balsamiq hit $2 million in cumulative sales by month 18, and get this: it was still just Peldi.

Ten years down the road, Balsamiq was still growing steadily and had expanded to a small team, with over $6 million annual revenue—all while maintaining a calm, healthy company culture. 

No burnout. No pivots. No desperate measures to hit artificial growth targets.

The secret wasn't some revolutionary strategy. It was patience.

Peldi understood that sustainable growth meant earning customers' trust day after day, year after year. By refusing to sacrifice long-term stability for short-term gains, he built a company with staying power that rivals much larger competitors.

The tech world loves overnight successes, but Balsamiq proves that patient, intentional growth creates something much more valuable: a business built to last.

Intent to Action

Growing sustainably means different things at different stages. Here's how to take the patient approach in each:

Pre-PMF: Focus on learning, not scale

The biggest mistake early-stage founders make is scaling before confirming they've built something people truly want. Instead:

• Run a Minimum Viable Week: For one full week, direct all your energy toward speaking with potential users. Aim for 10+ customer interviews focused on understanding their problems, not pitching your solution.

• Create a Problem Journal: Document recurring pain points that emerge from these conversations. Look for patterns where your solution might genuinely help.

• Set anti-vanity metrics: Rather than chasing user numbers, track satisfaction signals like “would miss if gone” responses or unprompted referrals. (This is also known as the product-market fit score)

Right after PMF: Double down on existing customers

Once you've confirmed product-market fit, you’ll want to grow. But don’t bite off more than you can chew:

• Build your “18-Month Wall”: Calculate your minimum viable runway and create firm financial boundaries. This psychological safety net enables better decision-making.

• Map your customer happiness journey: Identify the 2–3 moments where customers experience the most friction. Fix these before adding new features.

• Implement a “Scaling Question”: Before any new initiative, ask yourself if it’ll make existing customers happier. Then, write down your evidence. By stopping to check yourself, you’ll save a lot of time, energy, and cash over the long run.

Ready to grow: Expand through trust

When you're ready to accelerate growth, do it the sustainable way:

• Create a Customer Advisory Board: Invite 5-7 of your most engaged customers to meet quarterly. Their insights will ground your growth plans in reality.

• Develop “No-Strings Generosity”: Like Balsamiq's free offerings to nonprofits, create a giving program aligned with your values. The goodwill returns are immeasurable.

• Run a Time-to-Value audit: Measure how quickly new users achieve their first meaningful outcome with your product. If you focus on this, you’ll avoid the ol’ leaky bucket problem (which I covered previously).

The common thread across all stages is—you guessed it—patience. Even Facebook said bye bye to “move fast, break things.” Nowadays, it's about moving deliberately and building trust.

Closing Thought

The tech world celebrates speed, but there’s a reason the RAV4 makes more money than all of Lamborghini. Building something great isn't about racing to the finish line—it's about enjoying the journey and creating value with each deliberate step.

Next week, we'll explore a few simple automations that can earn you back your time. If you have any specific automations in mind, reply to this email and tell me what they are. I’ll focus on those, first.

See you then.

Your Weekly Challenge

This week, I challenge you to identify one growth initiative you're currently rushing that might benefit from a more patient approach.

Ask yourself:

• What am I trying to accelerate that actually needs time to develop properly?

• Which decision am I making based on external pressure, rather than what's right for my business?

For me, it’s… this newsletter. When I started it, I tried creating a clear template and tutorial, then handing it off to a third party. The result felt so unnatural to me that I rewrote each one from scratch, anyway. And now, here we are! I write this newsletter each week, love doing it, and your replies make me feel like you do, too. So, thanks for that. :) 

—Simon