Start-up profile: Balsamiq

Speaking with Balsamiq CEO Giacomo ‘Peldi’ Guilizzoni about Start-ups and being an Entrepreneur

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Now, down to business.

This week, our start-up profile focuses on Italian-based  Balsamiq, a new, inventive start-up that specializes in high-quality plugins for Web Office applications. We caught up with Giacomo ‘Peldi’ Guilizzoni, the company founder and CEO to get some insight into what his company does, and how bright or bleak the horizon is for start-up IT companies at the moment….

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CareerMee: Thanks for talking with us today! Giacomo, can you pitch your company in 100 words or less?

Giacomo: First of all I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to be featured on your site. I have to admit I feel a bit sheepish not having gone to business school myself, but I swear I seriously considered it a few years ago.

About Balsamiq: we launched on June 19th 2008. We are a small software company focused on building high quality plugins for Web Office applications. Our first product is Balsamiq Mockups, a sketch-quality wireframing tool. Mockups has been extremely well received, netting over $750,000 in sales in its first year and gathering rave reviews. We like to compete on usability and customer service. http://www.balsamiq.com

CareerMee: That sounds great! What stage of development are you at the moment?

Giacomo: We are in the “continuous improvement based on user feedback” stage. Mockups has been on sale for over a year, and there’s still lots to do and more fun to be had! 🙂

We have over 7,000 customers at the moment and are selling about $120,000 worth of new licenses every month. We try to release a new update every week, based largely on customer feedback. We also aim to release two new product versions a year, expanding our sales channels to other Web Office platforms (wikis, CMSs, bug trackers)

CareerMee: With that kind of success, it sounds like you need good people around you. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself/your team?

Giacomo: Sure, I love our team! Valerie Liberty is our COO, Wow! Division, and works out of her home in the heart of the Silicon Valley. She keeps the company running smoothly and takes care of a lot of our customer’s questions. She’s one of those people one cannot help to instantly fall in love with, so she’s definitely perfect for the job. My wife Mariah also does some customer support but mostly focuses on our philanthropic efforts: we donate A LOT of licenses to do-gooders, non-profits and the like. It’s something we really love doing. Email us at free@balsamiq.com if you want to know more.

Doing most of the programming these days is Marco Botton, who works with Mariah and me out of our home office in Bologna, Italy. Marco is a senior programmer, a generalist, optimist and is not afraid of any technical challenge. He’s just what you need in a small tech startup.

Lastly, I go by Peldi but my full name is Giacomo Guilizzoni. Formerly a software engineer at Macromedia/Adobe, I ran Balsamiq pretty much alone for the first 8 months in business (up to 3,000 customers). While I still have my hands in every aspect of the business, I am slowly realising that the job of a CEO is a pretty time-consuming one!

Peldi Guilizzoni, Founder and CEO of Balsamiq

CareerMee: What is the next year set to bring for/from Balsamiq?

Giacomo: I am very happy with the pace we’re going at right now. We are doing good work, are happy doing it and are making lots of customers happy by saving them time and helping them communicate their ideas better. So the plan is to continue to do much of the same.

There’s still quite a ways to go before my vision for Mockups will be completely implemented, and that vision keeps evolving based on customer feedback and external market forces.

We are about to launch a SaaS (hosted, subscription-based) version of Mockups. This channel is new to us, so there will be lots to learn there as well. I’m looking forward to it!

CareerMee: What impacts has the recession had on startups/the startup scene?

Giacomo: What recession? 🙂 Well, we were born during the recession, so we don’t know anything else. I wonder if the recession has actually helped us, as companies strapped for resources look around for low-cost, high ROI tools like ours.

CareerMee: Sounds great. So, any advice you’d like to offer someone who’s thinking of launching an online startup?

Giacomo: As a rookie entrepreneur, I don’t feel I’m in a position to give anyone advice yet. So I guess my advice would be to find some heroes and try to soak in as much advice as possible from them: read their books, subscribe to their blogs, follow them on Twitter…I know, not the most original advice but it’s the one with the highest ROI I can think of.

Thanks for talkiing with us, Giacomo! Readers, if you have any experience starting your own company, or have any questions, be sure to go to our comments section. And don’t forget to go to CareerMee.com, our exclusive MBA platform for top MBAs!

Regional MBA Job Market – Israel

We’re speaking today with Hagit Katzenelson, MBA Hass Business School ’98, about living and working as an MBA in Israel.

Skyline and beachview in Tel Aviv, Israel.

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CareerMee: Thanks for talking with us today, Hagit. First of all, is the MBA as enmeshed in business culture in Israel as it is in the States/Western Europe? Have you noticed any trends?

Hagit: As recently as 10 years ago, a MBA was not really appreciated in Israel.  Both universities and students in Israel treated MBA studies very casually and almost all students continued working while earning an MBA.  A small percentage of MBA candidates opted to study in the USA and Europe.

The last few years however, have increased the value of the MBA in Israel, and I think this is a result of several trends:

1. There are more Israelis earning their MBAs in Europe and the USA, and more of them are coming back to Israel to share their knowledge and experience.  In the past few years there has been at least two annual MBA fairs (one sponsored by the Fulbright foundation) that try to recruit Israeli MBA candidates.
2. In addition to Israeli state-subsidized universities, private colleges have sprung up and they too offer MBAs.  They sometimes partner with colleges in Europe to bring local students an international experience.
3. As a result of the above, employees with MBAs have become more prevalent in the job market, and employers have come to realize that these employees offer more to the organization in terms of skills and knowledge.
4. There is also a better understanding of the difference between MBA degrees, with top 20 American universities, INSEAD and the London School of Economics getting the most respect.

CareerMee: Can you give us a bit of information on the differences between working in the US and working in Israel; cultural differences, work conditions, quality of life, etc?

Daily street life in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Hagit: Economically, due to lower salaries and higher taxes, take home pay in Israel is about half of an equivalent job in the US.  I’m not sure about Europe.  In certain industries such as high-tech and biotech, the working culture is very similar to that in US.  However, in the manufacturing and public sectors, Israel leans towards a more of a European/socialist attitude with a high level of government involvement.  Quality of life in Israel is pretty high and compares favorably with Europe and the US.  Culturally, Israelis are much more brash, loud and opinionated than Americans, and that does take a bit of getting used to.

CareerMee: If class of ’09 MBAs have the language skills, do you think Israel offers better job markets than the US/Western Europe?

Hagit Katznelson, Hass MBA '98 and President of the Hass Israel Alumni Group.

Hagit: In some industries, such as high-tech, Israel has taken hits similar to companies in the USA with massive layoffs and company shut-downs.  Other industries seem to be on the mend, and bankers and lawyers seem to be in demand again, but I’m not sure this is any different to Europe and the USA.  It remains to be seen if Israel recovers faster than the rest of the world from this current economic crisis.

Thanks so much, Hagit! Readers, let us know if you’ve been to Isreal or had any similar international experience with regional MBA markets.

AND, check us out at CareerMee.com, our exclusive MBA recruitment platform for top MBAs. Click here to sign up and make yourself available for jobs in Israel and worldwide.

Photos courtesy of Flickr user ErniePhoto.

Straight Talk from an International Search Firm

And when we say international, we mean I-N-T-E-R-N-A-T-I-O-N-A-L. Anne Marie Ronayne, co-founder and owner of Terra Connecta – a cross-sector international search firm – describes her target candidate population as:

“graduates, early-career professionals, middle management & senior executives with international profiles, high academic achievers, having spent a significant period of time outside of their country of origin, speaking several languages and open to mobility.”

Which makes sense, of course, as she is recruiting for “multi-sector international corporations based across all geographical zones, seeking to attract, recruit, integrate and retain internationally-minded high potential candidates.” So, we figured that if you want the straight talk about international recruiting, this is the woman to talk to. We called Anne Marie at her Paris-based office to find out if the global hiring freeze was really hitting all corners of the globe.

CareerMee: So, let’s have it. How is the market for MBAs looking?

Anne Marie: Well, what we’re getting is a lot of sector switchers – a lot of people trying to change directions mid-career.  Traditional big MBA recruiters like luxury goods, consulting, investment banking, industrial sectors, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) are hiring less than they would normally and they’re reducing their general intake. They’re definitely not in the same place they were a couple of years ago. To add to this the automobile sector is not hiring at all.

Sectors such as healthcare, biotech, new energies, aeronautic are still recruiting, however, and there appear to be more openings for engineers and scientific profiles than MBAs.

CareerMee: MBAs had a lot of bad press – how is this effecting the recruitment trends?

Anne Marie: I mean, this recession is affecting MBA recruiting all over. It’s tough for them, because they go back to school, they’re taking time out of their career, paying a lot of money – it’s not at all like doctors or lawyers, where the market always seems to have a place for them.  If they have the misfortune of doing an MBA in this worldwide crisis, it’s tougher. In fact, it’s the toughest we’ve seen in last 90 years. People coming out of MBAs in the 1990’s also had trouble finding jobs, and it took a lot longer. Then and now, we’re seeing MBAs who may not have had the financial benefits they thought they would get from the degree because the market is bad.

CareerMee: Sounds bleak. So maybe it’s not the best time to quit your job and head back to school. But if you’ve already got an MBA, is it still going to help?

Anne Marie: Of course. Companies are still looking to recruit. If they’ve got an MBA, that’s a great recruitment strategy. I will say, though, that companies are probably going to reduce number of intakes – as well as what type of compensation they’ll be getting. That is definitely a question and the packages aren’t going to be the same as what they maybe would’ve been a few years ago.  A majority of the people coming out may have longer to wait – which could be really difficult for them because they have already invested the money in the degree.

CareerMee: How is all of this affecting your business?

Anne Marie: We’re seeing that companies are hesitant to communicate with us. They don’t want to give away their intake strategy, in large part because it’s constantly changing. Many are having to modify these on a quarterly basis, depending on the market. They’re on short term strategy now.

It seems pessimistic and bleak, but it’s reality. It’s going to be a much longer process this year and early next year – companies are reluctant to make quick decisions.

Thanks for speaking with us, Anne Marie, and thanks for letting us know what’s going on in the world of international MBA recruitment. Make sure you’ve got your CareerMee profile updated so that recruiters like Anne Marie with TerraConnecta can find you when they’re looking to hire. Also, head to the TerraConnecta blog here for more from their team. Check out our exclusive MBA recruitment platform here to learn more about  CareerMee and sign up.

Update: Exclusive MBA Job in Nonprofit Sector

Hey guys! We’re back – with a job for MBAs in the nonprofit sector!

Laura Gassner Otting (see our interview from today’s earlier post), Founder and President of Nonprofit Professionals Adviory Group, has a job opening for senior level MBAs. Check it out, and head over to CareerMee.com so your profile is available for recruiters like Laura to see!

Organization: Special Olympics International
Position Title: Cheif Finacial Officer (CFO)
Position Location: Washington, D.C
Brief Position Overview: Reporting to the President & COO, the next Chief Financial Offer will join Special Olympics International during an exciting and challenging time as the Special Olympics Movement expands its programmatic and geographic impact, necessitating a renewed focus on internal financial strategy and a business-savvy financial team. The Chief Financial Officer leads both the strategy and the day-to-day operations of SOI’s finance and accounting function including the development and maintenance of SOI’s $67M operating budget.

S/he will be expected to: devise, implement, and administer SOI’s overall financial plans, programs and policies; oversee fiscal compliance with all regulatory and/or governing bodies; and manage a staff of 11 professionals. In addition, the Chief Financial Officer serves as a business partner to the Audit and Finance Committee of the Board of Directors at Special Olympics International, provides support to the needs of the Movement’s Board of Directors as well as other leaders and executive management, and leads and stewards a global base of accounting relationships, entities and regulations, across seven Regional Management Teams.

For more information and to apply, click here.

Thanks for checking back, and be sure to head over to CareerMee.com to set up your profile, so recruiters like Laura can contact you with more positions like this when they become available.

Interview with a Non-Profit Headhunter

Today we are speaking with executive headhunter Laura Gassner Otting, founder of the executive search firm Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group and author of  “Change Your Career:  Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector – Shifting from Bottom Line to Better World.”

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CareerMee: Hi Laura – thanks for speaking with us today! First off – are you seeing any recruitment trends in your industry? Is the economic crisis still hitting it hard?

Laura: The economic stimulus plan is geared toward creating or saving three to four million jobs. It is still unclear how many of these four million jobs will be newly created, and how many will be saved from elimination in the private sector or because of state government funding reductions. Regardless of whether these jobs are new or merely saved – something we won’t know until all the money has been allocated and outcome evaluations begin in 2010 – two things are clear: first, there will be more competition than ever and, second, the skills sought in new hires will change.

With or without the stimulus funding, there will continue to be jobs in the nonprofit sector because of naturally-occurring turnover, retirements, and leadership transitions. In addition to the usual numbers of traditional nonprofit jobseekers in the market, competition for open positions will be even fiercer with an influx of sector-switchers and encore-careerists looking for opportunities outside the private, for-profit sector during this economic downturn. Savvy job seekers will review areas of the stimulus package receiving the most new dollars, like alternative energy, education, healthcare, and public service, and pursue new careers in these areas.

In addition, nonprofit organizations are answering the demands of a different type of funder and, as such, the skills they need in their candidates are changing. Nonprofits are focused now more than ever on recruiting candidates with demonstrated experience and skills in accountability, earned income revenue generation, traditional fundraising, and mergers/consolidations/collaborations.

Laura Gassner Otting, Founder of Nonprofit Profesionals Advisory Group and author of the book "Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector"

CareerMee: So this sounds like good news for recent grads – would you say MBAs are worth more now in your sector? Would you advise someone who is currently employed to seek an MBA? What about someone who is currently unemployed?

MBAs are worthwhile in the nonprofit sector for the nonprofits that find MBAs worthwhile.  That’s the same as it’s always been.  MBAs who try to shoehorn themselves into nonprofits who haven’t adopted business thinking, who aren’t interested in data driven decisions, who rely solely on government money, will not succeed now, just as they wouldn’t succeed in the past.

That being said, many more nonprofits have started to see the value of the MBA training, mostly driven by a change in the source of funding.  As more and more nonprofits get less and less government funding, and diversify their boards and donors to include younger and venture-focused philanthropists, the ethos of those organizations follows the money.  A word to the wise:  MBAs should seek out business-friendly nonprofits that are, for example, on the brink of scaling, have begun to use best practices from the business world, and have already hired like-minded souls.  MBAs who go to work for “aspirational” business-think nonprofits may find themselves out of an “actual” job.

CareerMee: Speaking of inspirational, on the other hand. . . have you heard about the MBA oath? (See articles here, here and here, to get an idea.) Do you think companies and recruiters are taking notice? Will signing the oath have any effects on employability?

I think it is a wonderful idea, and certainly can’t hurt.  Unlike lawyers who swear to uphold the Constitution and doctors who take a Hippocratic Oath, there is no threat of disbarment or revocation of license should the MBA go over “to the dark side.”  At the end of the day, there are many ways for MBAs to make a positive impact on the world.  MBAs who choose to work in the nonprofit sector should be lauded for their commitment to their communities; so too should MBAs who choose to go out and make a boatload of money and give a decent percentage of that back into the nonprofits of their choosing.

Thanks for speaking with us, Laura, and keep an eye out for her book, available here. If you’ve got a question for Laura or a comment for the blog, let us know in the comment section!

AND, if you’re an MBA from a top school, check out our job portal here to post your resume so recruiters like Laura can directly contact you for open positions.