The Studioworks team
We’re a small but mighty team of experienced founders, designers, and developers excited to make 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
Co-founder & Head of Design
Jessica is a “designistrator”, entrepreneur, web tinkerer, and many other things. She’s run a small creative studio for over 15 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. Studioworks is that next big way, using her experience in client management and contract negotiation to help design the best studio management platform.
She lives with her husband, three kids, and two ancient cats in Berkeley, California.
Chris Shiflett
Co-founder & Head of Product
Chris is an entrepreneur, product designer, and web developer. He has spent the last 25 years building companies and communities and helping others do the same. Along the way, he has written a few books, spoken at conferences all over the world, and brought numerous good ideas to life. He is perhaps best known in the creative community as the co-founder and host of Brooklyn Beta, a friendly web conference.
In addition to Studioworks, his labors of love include a product studio called Faculty and an indie coworking studio called Roost. He likes working with small teams doing big things. He also enjoys leading backpacking trips and playing soccer. He lives with his wife, three kids, and a dog named Bear in Boulder, Colorado.
Nick Sloan
Head of Engineering
Nick is a veteran software engineer who has held leadership positions at numerous companies, including most recently head of engineering at Matter Neuroscience. Over the course of his career, he has helped build apps for companies like Apple, Samsung, Delve Fonts, and Tinybop. He’s also the co-founder of software company UpContent and the Pittsburgh Python User Group.
He likes collecting vinyl records, experimenting with music technology, and playing games. He lives with his wife and two dogs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Sean Coates
Head of Technology
Sean has been building web (and mobile) apps and infrastructure for over 20 years, working on everything from payment processing and ecommerce to archiving and neuroscience. He was the architect of Samsung’s global ecommerce infrastructure, which boasted an impressive zero downtime during the years he managed it. He likes working with small teams of smart people on meaningful projects. His specialties are architecture, backend development, APIs, and infrastructure.
He lives with his family in Montréal, Canada. They like to make things, learn things, break things, and grow things.
Friends,
How many separate platforms do you use to run your creative business? And how far do you bend their not-quite-right features to suit your studio’s specific needs? We’re making everything you need to manage a creative studio — from proposals and contracts to invoicing and payments.
We’re keeping it streamlined and intuitive without losing the polish and professionalism you bring to your work. And, because we’re creatives too, it’s all customizable, creating a cohesive brand experience for you and your clients. We’re so excited to bring our years of experience running small businesses and building products to Studioworks, and we’re even more excited for you to start using it.
— Jess, Chris, Nick, & Sean