As the founder of a 10-year old $6.3+MM bootstrapped company, Peldi talk about how your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness.
Every two weeks as part of The Heartbeat, I
Peldi Guilizzoni is the Founder and CEO of Balsamiq, a 10-year-old, bootstrapped, $6.3+MM annual revenue company with tens of thousands of customers in 193 countries. In our conversation, Peldi reveals a very counterintuitive lesson heās learned: Our greatest strengths as leaders often hurt us the most.
Claire: Hi, everyone. Iām Claire Lew and Iām the CEO of Know Your Company. I am just thrilled today to have with me the one and only Peldi who is the CEO of Balsamiq, everyoneās favorite prototyping tool. Peldiās built this amazing company over the pastāāāI donāt know, how many years has it been? Weāve been ⦠Ten, right?
Peldi: Ten.
Claire: I was about to say, I wanted to say 10. Itās been 10 years and Iāve been such a big fan of your work, big admirer of your whole ethos in thinking about building a company. I remember watching your talk a few years ago at Business of Software in Boston. I think thatās where we first originally met. Itās been fun to get to know you, to hang out, to learn from you. Thank you so much for being here today.
Peldi: Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Claire. Iām all nervous because you are one of the entrepreneurs that I admire and I follow. I think you are the entrepreneur that has had the most impact on my life for the last year.
Claire: Wow.
Peldi: Iāve basically been reading everything that you ever wrote.
Claire: That just makes my day. I will take that. All is good in life if I can get that from you, Peldi. Thank you so much. One other thing, too, I want to mention to everyone whoās watching The Heartbeat, youād mentioned to me that you actually also, aside from reaching the 10-year anniversary of Balsamiq, you guys recently launched a web app as well, which is really exciting. Those watching should definitely check that out. Peldi, hereās the thing, Iām here to extract wisdom from you today. I want to ask you this one question that Iāve been asking leaders I really respect and admire, and that question is:
Whatās something you wish you wouldāve learned earlier as a leader?

Peldi: Lots of stuff for sure, but thereās one thing that I came across that sort of was a light bulb moment. A few months ago, I was reading some of your guides on how to give feedback, and give and receive and all that. I came across this little video by Leo Widrich who was one of the co-founders of Buffer, and he was talking about some feedback that he had received from Joel of Buffer, which really opened my eyes.
The idea is that sometimes doing what youāre really, really good at actually hurts the company, which is very counterintuitive. Let me explain.
Claire: Yes, please do.
Peldi: In my case, I see it all the time. Iām really good at getting stuff done. I start projects, work on them, communicate with the right people, I make it happen. I do project after project after project after project, and Iām thinking Iām killing it. Then you realize that as a CEO, 10 years into it, I shouldnāt be doing any projects. I should have delegated everything by now. Now the team continues to rely on me to get stuff done instead of learning how to do it themselves. If I ever decide to go on vacation or burn out, then I leave them hanging.
Another example is my whole goal with Balsamiq is to learn as much as I can forever, be challenged and learn. Iām really good at that. If thereās a challenge, I dive in, I do the research, I know how to do research quickly with enough information to solve the problem. Iām learning, Iām learning, Iām learning, Iām learning, and Iām applying, but Iām never teaching what I learn.
Claire: Fascinating, yeah.
Peldi: I become good at all these thousands of different things including GDPR for instance.
Claire: Yeah, you and me both.
Peldi: Yeah, I mean in the last few months, Iāve done a lot of research on GDPR, another research on how to create a culture of feedback, completely unrelated, but things that our company needed. But instead, I should be teaching others how to do research.
Basically, you think youāre doing great, but you should take a step back and think okay, strategically, am I helping the company? Imagine the company without you in 50 years. Are they going to be ready to go?
Claire: Totally.
Peldi:
What I realized is that I should stop myself from doing things Iām good atāāāwhich is so counterintuitiveāāāand instead, focus on delegating training and making sure that everybody gets good at doing those things.
Claire: Absolutely. Itās this idea that ⦠I mean thereās so many layers here, Peldi, that I want to sort of peel away at because you talk about essentially saying that you being good at something isnāt enough in a company. Itās not that you just canāt be good at it. Itās other people have to be good at it or else the organization doesnāt become self-sustaining. I think thatās a like you said, itās a very counterintuitive nuance as a leader to understand that itās not about me being good at these things. Itās about other people. I think thatās one fascinating takeaway-
Peldi: Yeah, and itās tricky ācause no oneās going to stop you because you are doing a bunch of stuff. In Leoās case, he was lucky he had a co-founder in Joel and Joel realized that this was happening and he told him. I am a solo founder. The employees, no one-
Claire: No one tells you, yeah.
Peldi: Itās not their job. Theyāre like all right, youāre doing great.
Claire: Yeah. I was going to ask you, that was my next question, what caused you to recognize this realization? Did you have like a wake-up moment? Did someone say something? Was it something you read ?

Peldi: It was this little video that I came across while I was doing research on feedback and it was just timely. If I saw that video five years ago, I wouldāve said it doesnāt apply to me, whatever. Now 10 years into it, Iām maturing more, Iām finally maturing as a CEO and so, Iām more receptive to that kind of a feedback-
Claire: Absolutely. Question for you then, why do you think, and for folks who are watching I will be sure to share that, that video that Peldiās alluding to, why would the five years ago version of Peldi have disregarded that video? What is it thatās been different? What are you more open to or more sensitive or self-aware about? Whatās changed?
Peldi: Whatās changed is that weāre 10 years old now. That was sort of my big old goal from the beginning. I wanted to build a long lasting company and 10 years is pretty impressive for a software company. Now, Iām thinking about the next decade. In the next decade, my new goal is to make sure that I help Balsamiq become stronger than me and able to not only outlast me, but also outgrow me.
Claire: Absolutely. It sounds then like being able to resist seeing your strengths as sort of the only way you can make an impact on the business, itās the only way actually for the company to grow and to outlast you as the founder, then the organization isnāt just you as the CEO. Itās not just about Peldi. Itās now Balsamiq. Itās something bigger.
The other thing I was curious to get your take on, Peldi, is I was thinking about why itās actually so difficult for founders to not play into their strengths? For you, youāre good at getting stuff done. Youāre good at picking up and learning new things. I was thinking for myself like, āOh, what are the things that Iām good at?ā I think someone might say that, āClaire, youāre good at communicating things, youāre good at writing,ā and yet I would argue just like to your point that sometimes, I probably over-communicate things. Even within our tiny, tiny company, I probably over communicate stuff. Iām pretty sure if I were to look back, Iād go I didnāt ⦠Itās good to communicate, but maybe ācause weāre so small, maybe itās too much.
Peldi: Yeah, too much, yeah.
Claire: I was thinking about it and Iām curious to get your take on it. I wonder if itās because we like doing things that weāre good at.
Peldi: Yeah, I think thereās two things, maybe three.
One is definitely thereās a lot of ego that goes into being a founder.
Youāre proving to yourself that you can do this over and over. You like the challenge and you like to overcome the challenges. Diving into tough projects is fantastic. Itās another chance to prove to yourself, yes, Iāve overcome this obstacle as well.

The second thing is after a whileāāāand itās relatedāāāitās doing things youāre good at becomes something that makes you feel good. āCause if you were to focus on the things you need to work on all day, you feel completely inadequate. You donāt know what youāre doing. Sneaking in a project here and there or doing an extra piece of communicating, something that you know is going to work helps you feel better I think. Thereās a little bit of a laziness, but also sort of mental health, you need a little bit of a pick-me-up once in a while. Doing what youāre good at is good. Yeah, which is why I guess what you said we like doing that stuff.
The third is that it could be completely a blind spot. You donāt even realize youāre doing it. Itās just a habit. Itās just how you operate, and no oneās stopping you, and you never notice unless you watch this video.
Claire: I was just about to ask you. I mean that was literally my next thing. I was like it almost sounds like if itās sometimes the things that weāre good at that we like and that makes us feel good that are actually hurting our company, how do we ever find out what these things are, Peldi, other than like you said, stumbling on this video on YouTube?
Peldi: The way Leo did it was having a co-founder or I guess you could have advisers, but they donāt work with you day after day all day so they might never notice as well. I think over time, if you have an executive team, you have to teach them to do this as well. You have to create a culture of feedback so strong that they will even give you feedback about stuff that youāre good at, not just what you need to work on. But I bet thatās really tough to create and I havenāt been able to do it so far, but Iām working on it.
Claire: Itās an imperfect process and more art than science I think. I am curious, too, I can only imagine, there are some folks who are watching this, Peldi, who are thinking maybe, maybe some strengths are getting in the way, but there are certain things in my company, Peldi, that I only can do. There are certain things that only I am good at.
Peldi: Absolutely.
Claire: How do we as leaders, how do we make that distinction between these are the things I actually cannot give up and compromise on because Balsamiq would completely just go off the deep end and then, these are things where no, I need to get this off my plate, I need to teach other people how to do this stuff? How do you make that distinction?

Peldi: I think the answer changes depending on where your company is in its lifetime. I think I can only start thinking about these things now because we are stable. We are very profitable from the beginning. We have 30 people now and so, there is a chance that weāre going to stay in business for another few years. Itās pretty likely. So my horizon expands because I have these certainties. Five years ago, if somebody said, āYou need to think two years in advance,ā I would say, āYouāre crazy. Iām drowning. Iām just trying to tread water here.ā To people who say that, I say, āFair enough.ā If itās very likely not applicable to you, but you should keep this in the back of your mind for the future because I feel ⦠I donāt know. Not everybodyās goal in life is to build a long lasting company.
Claire: Sure.
Peldi: But if thatās your goal, then you have to keep this in mind because youāre not going to be around forever. After a while, you get too old. You want to retire or something happens, you want to-
Claire: Yeah, do something else, yeah.
Peldi:
What I wish I wouldāve done is ratcheted down my doing and my learning, and increased the teaching to do it gradually ācause now Iām 10 years in and Iām realizing that the company revolves around me too much still.
And I burned out and Iām like, āYou guys, Iām out. See you in a couple of months,ā and thatās a disaster ācause theyāre not ready. I havenāt prepared them. But actually, whatās happening is that my team kicks ass and they all stepped up, and theyāre teaching me how to do it so itās awesome.
Claire: Yeah, they saved you. I feel you. I feel you. I think I mean for me personally, Peldi, as a leader, one thing that Iām taking away is to not assume always that our strengths are good for the company, just not to make that correlation so automatic. I love that. Thatās something Iām going to be taking away. Two, I think this idea of reflecting on how focusing too much on our strengths can actually strangle the company I think is also a really interesting takeaway. I think regardless of business life span, Iām thinking even that small reflection process whether you take 10 minutes once a year or you survey your employees and you would just ask a couple people like, āHey, would you like to know how to do this stuff? Would you like to be doing more of this stuff?ā Then I love lastly, one thing I really hope people take away is this idea that teach more, do less and maybe the longer your company is in business for, maybe you ramp up the teaching and you lower the doing.
Peldi: Exactly, exactly.
Claire: I think thatās how you scale. I think thatās incredible wisdom.
Peldi: I wish.
Claire: Hey, Iām learning from you. Weāre all learning from you, Peldi. Thank you so much for being a part of this. We all appreciate it.
Peldi: Thank you very much, Claire.

