I'm a copywriter. I run a small studio called Fresh Pages. I am not, by any traditional measure, the person who "should" be building software.
But I got tired of waiting for someone else to build the thing I needed. So I'm building it — on my own, in the open, one calm feature at a time.
It started as my own mess
For years my client work lived across a scattering of tools. A proposal in one app. Contracts as PDFs flying back and forth over email. Invoices somewhere else. Feedback in three different threads. Deadlines in my head, and my income in a spreadsheet I updated at 11pm and stopped trusting by the weekend.
None of it was broken, exactly. It just meant I was the glue — the human integration holding six tools together, carrying the whole client relationship in my own tired brain. The admin quietly ate the hours I wanted to spend on the actual writing. And the low hum of "what am I forgetting?" never really switched off.
The tool I wanted didn't exist — not calmly, anyway
There are big client-management platforms out there. Plenty of them are capable. But most felt built for agencies, or for salespeople, or for a version of my business that had a team and a headset. They were loud where I wanted quiet, and they charged like it. And almost none of them thought about the thing I most needed help with: not managing my clients, but managing my own capacity — so I'd stop overcommitting and burning out.
So Chord became my attempt at the tool I actually wanted: one calm place that carries a client from first enquiry to final payment, under my own brand, while quietly watching my workload and my income so I don't have to hold all of it in my head. Fresh Pages is its very first user. I use it every day, which is the only real way to know whether it's any good.
Why solo, and why in the open
Building alone means it moves at the speed of one person — but it also means every decision is made by someone who lives the problem, not a roadmap committee. When a beta studio tells me something's clunky, I can often fix it that afternoon. There's no layer between the person using Chord and the person building it. For a tool that's meant to feel personal and calm, that closeness feels like the whole point.
And building in the open keeps me honest. You can watch the roadmap. You can tell me what you need. The early studios genuinely shape what gets built next — this is our tool as much as mine.
Who it's really for
Chord is for the freelancer and the small studio who are brilliant at the work and worn out by the wrapper around it. The people who want to look established, get paid on time, protect their own peace, and stop being the glue. If that's you, I'd love for you to come and help shape it. The first fifty studios lock in founding pricing for life — and, honestly, my lasting gratitude.
I'll send it over on Chord.