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Balsamiq
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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 79 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →
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How Balsamiq Grew

Wireframing tool for rapid product design

How did Balsamiq grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Balsamiq grew through a combination of early exposure on relevant blogs and forums, which generated word of mouth and traffic. The founder actively reached out to bloggers and communities interested in wireframing and user experience to promote the product before launch. Automation in releasing updates rapidly helped improve the app and contributed to its growth.

Channels

8 channels · grouped by how Balsamiq grows

  • Word of mouth

    · 1 mention
    “Then in a couple of places I’d say hey, I haven’t launched yet, but this is my tool and I think it might be relevant to the conversation. From that I got a bunch of word of mouth.”
    high

  • Great customer service

    · 1 mention
    “…if it’s just you doing it, it is a tangible representation of the best that you can do…the best website you can build, the best product you can build, the best everything, the best customer support you can give.”
    medium

  • Delegation of your tasks

    · 1 mention
    “I would release…I had a build machine that would ship live after every check-in. We don’t do that anymore. We’ve slowed down. Now we release every week.”
    medium

  • Automation

    · 1 mention
    “I had a build machine that would ship live after every check-in. We don’t do that anymore. We’ve slowed down. Now we release every week. But at the beginning after every check-in like five minutes it was like, ‘Check!’ And that was good. So I think people started noticing that the app got better ...”
    medium

  • Guest posts

    · 1 mention
    “I sent emails to some bloggers that I thought whose readers might be interested in my product. I got some responses from that one. On launch day I was written up on webworkerdaily which was one of my favorite blogs and still is, I’m very happy about that.”
    high

  • Customer interviews

    · 1 mention
    “On launch day I was written up on webworkerdaily which was one of my favorite blogs and still is, I’m very happy about that.”
    medium

  • Community marketing

    · 1 mention
    “I posted on The Business of Software forum, which is like a pre-after [?] news I didn’t know that existed until we first went…you know, I got this massive spike in traffic. But so I posted these little forums or places then I got some word of mouth started that way, but you’ve got to be careful w...”
    high

  • Optimize conversion rates

    · 1 mention
    “I would search blogs and Twitter for wire framing, the term wire framing tools, user experience, etc. That’s already stuff that I love to read about, so I knew which blogs wrote about this kind of stuff. Then in a couple of places I’d say hey, I haven’t launched yet, but this is my tool and I thi...”
    medium

How 2,678 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Balsamiq’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    68% ◀
  • Social media
    58%
  • Search/SEO
    57% ◀
  • Email
    47%
  • Community
    33% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    31% ◀
  • Partnerships
    30%
  • Paid ads
    24%
  • Events
    24%
  • Press/PR
    17%
  • Outbound/Sales
    16%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    8%
  • Brand Authenticity
    2%
  • Product expansion
    2%
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