Who we are
Small on purpose
No investors, no sales team, no growth at all costs. Two people who run studios, and a product.
Jessica Hische and Chris Shiflett have each run their own studio for more than 20 years; this is the tool they wanted. In 2024 we described it, and a thousand people signed up on the description alone. This is that product.
The subscription is the only money we make — not a cut of your payments. Your data is never sold and never trains anything, and nothing reaches your client that you didn’t send or approve first.
The founders
Jessica Hische
Jessica is a lettering artist, author, “designistrator”, entrepreneur, web tinkerer, and many other things. She’s run a small creative studio for 20 years, working with clients like Wes Anderson, Target, Apple, Fender, and Penguin Random House. She loves sharing her knowledge — through online courses like The Dark Art of Creative Business, resources like Don’t Fear the Internet, as a prolific speaker, and in other ways big and small.
Chris Shiflett
Chris is a founder, designer, and developer with 30 years of experience turning good ideas into products people love. He has a rare knack for making software feel simple, beautiful, and considered — and he has written a few books about it along the way. He is perhaps best known in the creative community as the co-founder and host of Brooklyn Beta, a friendly web conference.
Our story
Back in 2008, Chris and Jess shared a studio with other freelancers and independent creatives in a loft in Dumbo, Brooklyn. They worked on different things but had a lot in common — both loved making things on the internet, and they especially loved sharing what they had learned with their communities.
They each ran their own studio, and each spent as much energy teaching as building — Jess through courses, talks, and resources like Don’t Fear the Internet; Chris through books, conferences, and Brooklyn Beta. They’re both designers and builders, which is rarer than it sounds and turns out to matter a lot when the thing you’re making is software for designers.
They stayed in touch over the years, most recently when Chris helped Jess with email auth for her newsletter. When she wanted to build a tool to help creatives like herself, she called Chris. In an energizing hours-long call they chatted about the tools they wish they had when running their businesses. Then Jess left to travel, and Chris started wireframing and got a little carried away, exploring every idea they’d discussed until the whole product existed on screen. By the time they talked again, the thing they’d described to each other was sitting there, ready to be brought to life.
When we announced Studioworks to the world, we discovered we weren’t alone. People were excited enough to sign up on nothing but a promise. We call those people our Founding Members, and we launched a private beta to them in the fall of 2025 and to the public before the year ended. Today, Studioworks is home to an active community of working creatives — swapping advice, co-working, and helping each other run their businesses. They’re exactly who we set out to build for, and they’re the reason we keep building.
Studioworks launched with invoicing and payments, then client and contact management. Now it’s proposals your clients sign online, a hub for every client, and room for your whole team. We keep building what matters most to our community. Join us, or follow along.