About Easel
Meet the founder
Hi, I'm Evan. I built Easel because I got tired of seeing small businesses trapped by platforms that extract value instead of creating it.
Over the past decade, I co-founded two tech companies, raised $15M in venture capital, scaled teams to 40+ people, and went through an acquisition. I learned firsthand how outside funding changes a company's priorities—VCs push for quarter-over-quarter growth at all costs, leading to feature bloat, nickel-and-diming customers, and products that serve investors instead of users.
I'm financially stable now and never need to do that again. With Easel, I can focus on what actually matters: building software that helps your business succeed, not extracting maximum value from you.
The path forward
Right now, Easel is just me working part-time. But I have a clear vision for how this grows.
Staying intentionally small
As revenue grows, I'll work on Easel full-time, then hire a few people. But we'll always stay small enough that everyone knows each other, small enough to make decisions quickly, small enough to care deeply about every customer.
Worker cooperative structure
I will operate Easel as a worker cooperative: democratic decision-making, profit sharing with members, and one member = one vote. There will be no CEO; instead we will use sortition for day-to-day governance to prevent power concentration, while big decisions like layoffs require a vote from all members.
Fully open source
Easel is completely open source under AGPLv3. You can read the code, verify there are no backdoors or tracking, fork it, self-host it, or modify it for your needs. Even if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, Easel continues. Your business doesn't depend on my personal success. View the source code →
The personal guarantee
When you choose Easel, you're betting on me personally. I don't take that lightly.
You have my personal email (evan@easel.engineering), you can message me directly on Signal, and every support request comes to me. If something breaks, I fix it. If you need a feature, I'll tell you if I can build it.
Your success is my business model.
Ready to work together?
No sales calls, no demos, no pressure. Try Easel for 30 days and see if we're a good fit.