Meet the Founders
We bring our decades of experience running studios and building community resources alongside a deep devotion to craft into making magical, life-changing products for independent creatives and small studios. No investors, no growth-above-all mentality — just intuitive, beautiful, powerful tools to help creative businesses thrive.
-
Jessica Hische
Jessica is a lettering artist, author, “designistrator”, entrepreneur, web tinkerer, and many other things. She’s run a small creative studio for nearly 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, followed by client and contact management. We’re building a whole suite of products (we’re working on proposals now!), and we continue to prioritize what’s most important for our community. Join or follow along as we build beautiful, affordable, ethical, community-driven business software to empower all independent creatives and small studios.
You might be wondering…
Is Studioworks a good alternative to QuickBooks, FreshBooks, HoneyBook, Bonsai, or Wave?
Yes — especially if you’re an independent creative or run a small design studio. Those tools are built for general small businesses; Studioworks is built specifically for creative studios, with beautifully branded invoices, a custom studio hub, and lower transaction fees (no markup on top of Stripe’s base rates — unlike the percentage-based fees most of them add). It’s one flat plan at $39/month with every feature included.
Who is Studioworks for?
Studioworks is made for independent creatives and small design studios — designers, illustrators, studios, and other creative professionals who send invoices, get paid, and want their client touchpoints to look as polished as their work. If you’re juggling several general-purpose tools and wishing for one made for how creative studios actually work, that’s exactly who we built it for.
What’s wrong with using QuickBooks, Notion, Dropbox, etc.?
Nothing at all. We’ve used these tools (and so many more)! They work great. The problem is using (and paying for) all of them when you only need a little bit of what each tool does.
We’re building Studioworks for people who don’t want to use one little piece of five different tools. You’d rather use one product made just for you — polished, professional, intuitive, and designed for how creative studios actually work.
Can I import my data from other platforms?
Not yet, but it’s on our roadmap. Many members use Studioworks alongside their current tools to save on transaction fees and streamline invoicing, without having to move everything over at once.
Will my clients need to have an account?
Nope! Studioworks creates unique links your clients use to view invoices and make payments.
How does invoice payment work?
Invoices can be paid through credit card and bank transfer (via Stripe); Venmo; PayPal; by check; through a third party like Bill.com or Wise; or any offline way you like to get paid. You can set a preferred payment method and track everything in one place.
Will you collect additional transaction fees?
Studioworks doesn’t collect any additional fees — only the standard processing fees incurred through Stripe. If you tend to send larger invoices (think $2,000+) a few times a month, you can save thousands in fees throughout the year.
Will you help with tax preparation and filing?
Studioworks helps you simplify your bookkeeping and tax prep. Check out our free, ungated Bookkeeping Wizard in the Studioworks Library.
How will you protect my financial data?
We use Stripe to handle all financial transactions, and we design Studioworks with privacy and safety in mind. We will never sell your data to a third party, and you control what you share with clients.
Does Studioworks use AI?
No. We’re open to using AI down the road in specific, utilitarian ways — but only if it’s ethical and opt-in. Today, there are no AI integrations.