Voices
Conversations with people who run small operations across many channels — in their own words.
The most useful answers about how to run a small operation usually come from someone who is already running one. Not from frameworks or thought leaders, but from a freelance designer with three retainers, a two-person studio handling six client Slacks, a translator coordinating across timezones.
Voices is a slower kind of writing. We sit down with people whose work depends on staying reachable without being overwhelmed, and we ask what the day actually looks like — the apps, the rituals, the rules they made for themselves and the ones they broke.
The angle is theirs, not ours. Read these for what they are: portraits of work, told straight.
More from Franz
- Why Franz Runs on European Infrastructure Privacy is not a privacy policy. It's a vendor list. Why every server, AI call, and email Franz touches answers to a European court. A founder's note.
- How Messaging Went From Open Protocols to Walled Gardens Trace how messaging went from open protocols to walled gardens — from the early days of SMTP and IRC to the closed platforms that control your conversations.
- Context Switching Is the Productivity Tax Nobody Tracks Context switching is the productivity tax nobody tracks. Discover the hidden focus drain across your inboxes — and how Franz ends it for good.
- Your Meetings Are Now Merchandise Franz built a desktop app to make messaging quieter. Now there are also shirts, embroidered caps, and ceramic mugs about how loud it still gets.
- Ten Years of Franz Franz turns ten this year. Franz 6 ships now. A founder's note on a weekend prototype, a fundraise we skipped, and why one person is the point.