For one-person craft shops
Every commission on one screen. Customers sign off their own specs. Status replies in two taps.
Built by a maker · with makers
The three leaks
You're juggling 12 active customers, each with a 30–400 message DM thread. Customer A's integral bolster note bleeds into Customer B's ironwood handle spec. Wrong piece made. $800 deposit refunded. Customer relationship gone.
$5K–$15K lost per year — even from one screwup a month.
A customer who paid 8 months ago asks for an update once or twice a month. With 12 active commissions that's 20–40 "any update?" DMs every month. Each reply takes 15–20 minutes because you're guessing which customer is at which stage.
~250 hours a year — six full-time weeks at the bench, gone.
Books open. 60 DMs in 24 hours. You take the first 10 and silently ghost the other 50. Half of them would've waited 18 months. You'll never hear from them again.
80–100 high-intent leads sent to the trash every year.
What it is
benchnext is a phone-first order tracker built on three primitives:
Send a customer a unique link — they fill in their own specs and photos. No transcribing. Status updates go out as two-tap, pre-filled messages you paste into Instagram or WhatsApp.
Three primitives, three wins
01
Crossed specs
Captured in 30 seconds — or filled in by the customer themselves.
Six-field form (name, piece, price, deposit, ETA, description) with voice dictation and multi-image upload. For complex specs, tap “Generate customer link” and send the unique URL via WhatsApp — the customer types the spec in their own words.
Commission record + shareable form link
02
Status churn
Built once, used forever.
Five maker-defined reply templates with placeholders ({{customer_name}}, {{eta}}, {{tracking}}). One tap renders the template against that record's fields, copies it to clipboard, logs the send. Paste into Instagram. Done in 10 seconds instead of 20 minutes.
Template substitution
03
Ghosted leads
Customers fill in their own details. You see a structured list, not 60 DMs.
Every maker gets benchnext.app/m/[handle] for their Instagram bio. Books open → customers submit a structured inquiry. Books closed → email capture for the next opening. 60 DMs become 60 organized records you can actually triage.
Shareable form link · public mode
Honest answers
Two ways in
Tier 01 · Free
Email only
We'll email when beta opens. No drip campaigns, no "10 tips for makers" garbage.
Tier 02 · Founding
$20 · refundable
First 20 makers only. 100% refundable any time before launch. No payments for 12 months, then $9/mo (regular $19/mo).
16 spots remaining
Who builds this
I'm a software maker who's spent the past few months talking to several bladesmiths, leather workers, and luthiers. The same leak shows up in every conversation: deposits lost to crossed specs, hours wasted on "where's my piece?" replies, leads ghosted at books open.
Nobody's building software for the way you actually work. So I'm building it, with you, not just for you.
benchnext is small, focused, and shipped in public with the makers who'll use it. Reply to my welcome email when you sign up — that's how I learn what you need most.
If this sounds like your shop, become a founding partner — $20 covers your first year, then half-price ($9/mo) for life. Change your mind? I'll refund the $20, no questions, if it's not what you hoped.
Last call
Be the first maker on the list. Or claim a founding spot for $20 — one full year free, then $9/mo.
