There was no single breaking point. No dramatic moment where everything fell apart.
It was more like a slow leak.
"A constant feeling of being unprofessional," is how Louie describes it. Louie is a design agency owner based in the Netherlands. He's been running his studio for six years. And for most of those years, he's been fighting a battle that had nothing to do with design.
The Problem Wasn't the Work
Louie's days weren't spent creating. They were spent managing — managing software, managing tools, managing the spaces between tools.
"I was spending all my time managing software and managing my team across all those tools — just to maintain some kind of structure. But actually creating design started feeling less and less enjoyable."
His stack looked like every agency owner's stack: Moneybird for invoicing. ClickUp for project management. Notion for everything else. Google Forms for client intake, connected to Slack through Zapier because ClickUp's forms didn't work. Spreadsheets for cost tracking and freelancer payouts. WhatsApp for client communication. A notes app. Marketing tools he was still searching for.
"I've honestly used everything," he says.
Twelve tools. None of them talked to each other. And every time a client came in, the cycle started over — send the price list, send the quote, send the form link, move the data, create the project, delegate the tasks, collect feedback through screenshots pasted into documents.
"Design reviews were always a problem. It always went through documents, WhatsApp messages, and screenshots."
The Real Pain: Professionalism
What bothered Louie most wasn't the inconvenience. It was the impression it left.
He was using Google Forms for client intake — a tool you can't brand or customize. The alternative? Typeform at €90 a month. As a design agency, you're in the business of crafting premium experiences. Sending clients to a generic form doesn't feel like one.
"There was this persistent feeling that it was very hard for me to come across as professional."
That gap between the quality of work his studio produced and the experience clients had working with them — that's what drove him to build something different.
Why Not Just Pick a Better Tool?
Because there isn't one.
ClickUp is powerful but complex. "All other software just feels too complex," Louie says. Putting a team of ten people on ClickUp costs a significant amount per month — and clients still can't be onboarded properly. You invite them as guests, which "never felt professional enough."
HoneyBook works for solopreneurs but breaks at five people. Dubsado feels abandoned. Monday.com looks great in demos and disappoints in practice. Notion is flexible but requires months of DIY setup and still doesn't have invoicing or a client portal.
"There is simply a lack of a design agency project management tool that is this focused on the niche and addresses all of these problems."
So We Built It
Louie didn't wait for someone else to solve this. He started building the first version himself — using Claude Code, an AI coding tool — before bringing in Lam, a cloud engineer and freelance developer who'd been working alongside him for eight months on another project.
Lam had context. He'd heard Louie talk about these frustrations for months. But he didn't fully understand the scope until he saw that first draft.
The insight was structural: design agencies never got their own native software because software was too expensive to build. The market was too small for the investment required — you'd need 20-30 engineers, product designers, and marketers. No investor would fund a niche solution for studios with 5-25 people.
But the cost of building software has dropped. What used to require a team of thirty can now be built by two founders who understand the problem.
What We Actually Built
The first module was about simplifying the basics — projects, tasks, team coordination, and client communication in one place.
"I essentially took all the systems I ever had to use separately and merged them into one single app. Where you can just figure out, project by project and channel by channel, where things stand. I only need to open one app and I can track everything."
From there, Oase grew into what Louie calls "the software that doesn't exist yet":
- A client portal where clients get a premium onboarding experience — not a WhatsApp group invite
- A design review system where clients annotate directly on deliverables — not screenshots pasted into documents
- Branded forms that look like your studio, not Google's
- Built-in creative tools — color palettes, background remover, image resizer, shareable vision boards
- AI that actually knows your projects — Dune, an assistant that drafts messages, delegates tasks, creates projects, and generates marketing content from your actual work
- Central messaging — clients, team, and freelancers in one place
The difference is that everything is connected. A form submission becomes a project in one click. An accepted quote auto-populates an invoice. Design feedback lives inside the project channel, not in someone's email inbox.
What Happened After the Switch
Louie cancelled Typeform (€90/month), Slack (€600/year), ClickUp, Notion, and ChatGPT. Total savings: over $2,200 per year.
But the number that matters more is what he got back.
"Before, I'd have to spend an hour and a half just gathering context before I could even generate a piece of marketing. Having that scheduled, having a pipeline for it — that's all built in now."
His freelancers noticed immediately. "Processing feedback has never been this easy!" was the reaction in the first few weeks. Several asked: "Can I use this software myself?"
And the morning routine changed completely: "I open one app, and I immediately ask Dune what's on my list today and what needs to get done. And then I just get to work."
Who This Is For
Oase is for design agencies and creative freelancers with 1-25 people. Whether you're a solo designer or running a small studio, the thesis is the same: running your agency should feel good. You shouldn't lose yourself in a stack of generic tools that were never built with your work in mind.
The free plan includes three client portals and five projects. No credit card, no commitment.
"Just try it," Louie says. "Run one or two projects on the free plan. Invite a client into their portal and watch their reaction. That moment, when they see it for the first time, is when you'll know."
Why We're Different
We're not a generic PM tool adding an "agency" label. We're not a freelancer invoicing app bolting on project management. We didn't study competitors and build a feature comparison matrix. We built this because Louie needed it, and because every agency owner he talks to is fighting the same battles.
"We're genuinely taking on the big corporations: by being far more personal in everything we do."
Oase starts at €29/month (billed annually). That's already less than what most agencies pay for Typeform alone.
After six years of struggling with tools that were never built for him, Louie puts it simply:
"It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders."
Louie is the cofounder of Oase and has been running a design agency in the Netherlands for six years. Lam is the technical cofounder and the developer behind the platform. Oase is available at getoase.com.