Pencil 9 Reduces Remote Collaboration Costs and Rebuilds Team Alignment with SoWork
Tim Reckseen, Cofounder of Pencil 9
Our SoWork office is molded to us, our company, and our culture. We couldn't work without it.
Things feel more natural. Instead of only connecting in scheduled calls, we have the sense of truly being in an office together. We take great pride in our SoWork workspace and feel connected to it.
When Remote Work Became a Juggle
When Pencil 9 first went remote, the flexibility felt liberating. Soon, however, the team began to notice cracks in their workflow. Messages pinged across Slack. Zoom calls piled up. Project management apps multiplied. Time that could have been spent creating was lost to coordinating tasks and checking multiple platforms.
The real tipping point came when the team realized that their scattered tools were not just slowing work. They were costing money. Hours spent switching between apps added up. Software subscriptions stacked unnecessarily.
Finding a Workspace That Feels Like Home
Pencil 9 moved into SoWork’s persistent virtual office, where the team could see who was online, pop into rooms for quick collaboration, and host client meetings seamlessly.
Customizable Workspots and avatars: Gave everyone a sense of ownership and personal expression.
Seamless client integrations: Made external collaboration smooth and effortless.
Consolidation of tools: Replaced multiple apps, saving hundreds of dollars per month.
We spend our entire day in SoWork. It simulates going into an in-person office, and entering SoWork is the first thing we each do each day. Working together here has saved us crazy amounts of time, and it’s more fun. We invite external folks and clients in for meetings too. They love this tool and are totally mind-blown. It’s been awesome, and exactly what we were missing.
The more we design and customize our virtual workspace, the more pride we take in it. We love tailoring our individual Workspots to create a personal vibe that we’re connected to. We’re so proud to call SoWork our virtual HQ.
Collaboration Without Friction
By centralizing work in a single digital headquarters, Pencil 9 naturally improved collaboration. Quick questions no longer required scheduling a meeting. Informal interactions that had been lost in remote work began to return. The team felt aligned, engaged, and focused on creating instead of coordinating.
SoWork improves how my team can interact in numerous ways, which is of course, critical for our distributed team. We can work side by side, and get things done in a way that was never before possible.
Results That Speak for Themselves
The transformation was measurable: the team cut software costs, improved workflow efficiency, and built a sense of connection that made remote work feel human again.
