How Wesley Turned a Common Studio Bottleneck Into a Business that’s Resonating

Creative Profit Issue 02

Meet Wesley Bancroft (@WesleyBancroft) — founder of Work, Inc. and cofounder of the brand studio Lunour. After years of designing inside startups and leading internal design teams, Wesley saw something most creatives overlook: the gap between doing great work and sharing great work.

His solution wasn’t a portfolio refresh. It was a new business.

The Offer

Work, Inc. helps creative studios actually market themselves. It’s a service built around a real pain: the backlog of unshared client work that every studio has and nobody has time to deal with.

Wesley and his team turn that backlog into clean, strategic, on-brand case studies. Then they package it all in distribution-ready formats for web and social.

Each engagement is custom—but structured. They build a templated case study system in Figma, craft the story, create social assets, and help teams finally publish the work they’ve been sitting on.

“The studio is too close to the work, to know how to put their best work forward. And so if you can just ship it out to someone else and say, objectively, when you look at this case study or this work we provided to the client, how would you tell the story?”

From Startups to Studios

Before launching his own thing, Wesley worked inside multiple early-stage startups. He managed agency relationships, launched campaigns, and learned how creative decisions intersect with business needs.

“Interestingly, I’ve never actually worked at any, like, a formal design agency. So a lot of what I’ve learned along the way has been incorporating what I’ve learned as an IC or head of design or building a team around a specific business venture.”

Eventually, he and cofounder Scott started Lunour, a boutique brand studio focused on early-stage startups. Over time, they also spun up Logo Launch—a lower-cost, productized sprint offer.

But one pain point stuck around: despite all the output, they weren’t consistently promoting their own work. Wesley knew this wasn’t unique to them. Every studio he talked to had the same struggle.

So they built Work, Inc.

The Power of Partnership

Wesley didn’t build this alone. His cofounder, Scott Bair, plays a crucial role in both Lunour and Work, Inc.—bringing a strategic and operational lens that complements Wesley’s creative execution. Where Wesley handles the design and production work, Scott focuses on structure, brand strategy, and long-term vision.

“I get a lot of energy from working with others, and a partnership like this lets us divide and conquer,” Wesley said. That balance is part of what makes Work, Inc. function with such clarity.

It’s not just two designers teaming up—it’s a strategist and a builder combining their strengths to push each project forward. And that dynamic shows up in the work.

A Business Born from Necessity

Wesley didn’t plan this as a “startup.” It started because he had to solve a problem—and he had too many responsibilities to waste time doing it the long way.

He lives in Southern California. He has eight kids. He runs a brand studio. And in early 2025, he went full-time on Work, Inc. without funding or runway.

His answer? Design the offer to run lean.

That meant productized thinking, clear systems, upfront pricing, and repeatable delivery.

Today, Work, Inc. is a 50/50 split of his time. It generates about 30% of his income—and growing. His goal? Flip those numbers.

Wesley agreed that while Work, Inc. is still growing, it’s not something on the back burner. “I want this to be the main thing,” he said — and he’s building toward that reality without compromising the quality of his other work.

Wesley’s approach proves that constraints can be powerful. By limiting scope, deliverables, and timelines, Work, Inc. forces clarity—for both the buyer and the business. These constraints don’t dilute creativity—they focus it. The result isn’t less—it’s more intentional, more repeatable, and more scalable.

Studios Are Great at Marketing—Just Not for Themselves

There’s a reason this business resonated immediately: creative studios are notoriously bad at sharing their own work.

They don’t have time. They don’t have the process. And even when they do, it feels awkward to promote themselves.

Work, Inc. makes that part easy. The team builds out the assets. They craft the case study. They even follow up to get testimonials. It’s high-quality output—without taking the attention of a team member away from their primary responsibilities.

Work Inc. has strong opinions about how these stories should be told. That’s part of what clients are buying.

“You're not only the domain expert, but you and you have all the process around it. But you're also an objective resource. Right?”

The problem Work, Inc. solves is not a new one—and that’s the point. Every agency owner knows this is a problem. Nobody needs to be convinced. They just need someone to help them finally solve it.

And most importantly, they need to know how much it will cost and how long it will take. Without that, even a unique offer will be limited by however much time the service provider is able to commit to selling.

Why It Works

Work, Inc. isn’t trying to be everything. It’s built for a specific type of client: small-to-midsize studios with a steady flow of work and no time to market it. Typically, 3–10 person teams. Often agency owners who know they should be publishing more—but aren’t.

Being specific about who you're for is something most creatives fear. There's a belief that niching down means turning people away. But specificity is what makes a service like Work, Inc. actually resonate. When someone reads the site or sees a tweet, they immediately know: 'This is for me'—or it's not. That clarity doesn’t just help with marketing. It makes  the actual work better.

The format is structured, but flexible. It allows Wesley and his team to take on repeat work, but also adapt to each studio’s tone, process, and style.

And it’s not just about showing pretty visuals. Work, Inc. highlights real results, strategic choices, and brand impact—something most case studies skip.

“Showing, for instance, what a lot of studios skip over is before and afters. So that transformative aspects that you brought to the client… leaning into that, even more on the product side, on the story side of, you know, where someone was and where they are now.”

In the rush to build products or launch software, it’s easy to overlook the power of a high-trust, repeatable service business. But service isn’t just a stepping stone. It’s often the most direct—and most fulfilling—path to freedom.

Key Takeaway

You might be asking yourself...

– So they're just making case studies based on existing files? Yes.

– They're just putting images into mockups? Yep.

– They're just organizing screenshots into templates? Also yes.

– They're just telling stories studios could write themselves? Definitely.

– They're just helping studios market like they tell clients to? Exactly.

And the best part is, it is working. Just like MOST businesses, the people buying from Wes are already completely aware of their problem. Work Inc. is not trying to convince a whole market of people that they have a problem that needs solved.

They’re doing things every studio knows they should be doing. Things that seem obvious—until you actually try to do them well. Then you realize: it takes real expertise, structure, and a strong point of view to do it consistently and at a high level (or even at all.)

Wesley isn’t trying to turn this into software. He’s focused on results, not raising money. He's got bills to pay. Did I mention he has eight kids? We all say, “we’ve got mouths to feed” but Wes actually does. There are real consequences if he fails. But he doesn’t let that fear of “what if” keep him from making something happen.

The way Work, Inc. is structured—with systems, templates, and frameworks—leaves the door open for scale. The foundation is there. But it doesn't have to be perfect to get started.

• Studios send over a backlog of work
• Work, Inc. turns it into assets
• The client actually gets to show off what they do best

The service is the product.

And in a world where everyone’s trying to hack visibility, Wes and Scott are quietly building a business that makes visibility automatic for creative studios.

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