I think most founders (who are not already wealthy) would rather get rich than have a good time doing their startups. I think you really do have to choose sometimes. If you always choose to do the easy thing (like hire people to do things you could do yourself) you're not going to do as well as if you chose to suffer some pain.
Scenario one: Pocket $500k/year profit over 4 years. At the end you've got $2 million saved up and can probably sell the business for another couple million because it's lean, proven, and profitable.
Scenario two: Spend that $500k/year on salaries while trying to build a much larger business. If you fail you could walk away with nothing and selling the business isn't all that profitable because the burn rate seems to be high. Even if you succeed you've likely given a lot of equity away, it may take much longer, and your share might not even be as much as if you had taken the other route.
That may be true for 'most' founders (although I suspect it is far from universal), but I think it is fairly evident that Peldi has chosen the latter path. See:
http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=587
Peldi doesn't seem to be viewing Balsamiq as a stepping stone to getting rich and working on his next project in pursuit of some unknown end state; for him, Balsamiq IS the end state (or he hopes it will be).
If you really truly enjoy what you're doing - and it is clear he is - is there really any point to suffering some optional pain in exchange for a greater payout at the end?
(Standard caveat - Peldi, if you're reading this and I am way off base, please feel free to correct!)
Hi gwc, Peldi here. You go it exactly right, Balsamiq is not a 'startup' in the pg sense, but rather a lifestyle business...I hope to be working on/for Balsamiq Studios for as long as possible, and to continue to have a great time doing it. The goal is to build a small company of rock-stars who do great work, delight our customers and love to work together every day. What's not to like? ;)
It's nice to be able to share the experience with others that you like and respect.