Before the App, There Was a Crew: Meet the Real People Building Guildstew

I realized something lately. If I keep talking about Guildstew without talking about the people behind it, it starts to sound weirdly sterile. And that would be inaccurate, because nothing about this studio is sterile. We’re a small group of very real people trying to make something we care about, and I thought maybe I should introduce them like a normal person instead of hiding behind a logo and a landing page.

So this is the team. Or at least the part of the team I get to bother on a regular basis.

The Anchor: Brandon Hazell (CFO & Resident Reality Check)

Brandon is my husband, and he is also the person most likely to look at one of my ideas, let me finish the whole thing, and then go, "Okay, but how would that actually work?"

Which, to be clear, is necessary.

He spent 11 years in the Air Force, so he has this very steady, practical way of looking at problems that I do not naturally possess. I tend to get excited first and sort out the consequences later. Brandon sorts while I’m still mid-excitement.

He keeps the company grounded. He handles the numbers, the planning, and a lot of the things that make me want to lie face down on the floor for ten minutes. And when I’m overwhelmed, he’s usually the one reminding me to slow down and solve one thing at a time.

He’s calm in a way I admire and occasionally resent.

The Enabler: Christopher Brink (Lore Master & Think Tank)

Christopher has been one of my best friends since we were 12, which feels fake, but apparently is how long we’ve known each other.

He is one of those people who can hold an entire system in his head and then somehow make it better while talking about it casually. We can start with one small idea and, an hour later, we’re deep in a discussion about world rules, player behavior, balance, or some obscure bit of lore that suddenly matters a lot.

He’s Head of Systems and Writing Creative, which is the formal version. The less formal version is that he helps me turn half-formed ideas into things that actually make sense.

A lot of what feels coherent in our worldbuilding is coherent because Christopher was there to ask better questions than I was asking.

The Vibe Architect: C’Jay Wylie (Marketing Manager)

C’Jay is one of those people who is just genuinely good with other people. Not in a fake networking way. In a real way. He knows how to make people feel welcome, and that matters more than I think most businesses admit.

He’s our Marketing Manager, but that title honestly doesn’t cover all of it. He helps shape how we talk, how we show up, and how we connect with the people around this project. He’s also a girl dad, which I mention because it explains a lot about his patience level.

He runs the Table Top Tails Discord server, cares deeply about community, and has a good instinct for when something sounds too stiff or too polished. That’s useful, because left to my own devices, I either sound too intense or like I haven’t slept in four days. Sometimes both.

He brings a lot of warmth to this team.

The Soul of the App: June, Vee, and Savannah (The Art Team)\

This part matters to me a lot.

The art in Guildstew comes from real people. June, Vee, and Savannah are a huge part of why the app looks the way it does. If anything in it feels lived-in, expressive, or like it has an actual point of view, that’s them.

They step in when I need help, when a feature needs visual life, or when my body simply taps out before the work does. They bring skill, taste, and a level of care that makes the whole thing better than it would have been otherwise.

And I like that their work feels like their work. Not generic. Not flattened out. Not scraped together by a machine and passed off as creativity. Just actual artists making actual things.

That matters. A lot.

\

The Boots on the Ground: Joshua Stanford & Skylar LaBounty (The Roadies)

Joshua and Skylar are the people who make sure we don’t disappear into our own heads.

They’re from Oklahoma, they know tabletop players, and they actually go out and talk to people in person at cons and local game stores. Which sounds obvious, but you would be amazed how many people build things without ever watching someone try to use them.

They bring the prototypes, set things up, answer questions, and then come back with the kind of feedback you can’t fake. Not the polished kind. The useful kind. The kind where someone gets confused, or excited, or immediately clicks with something you weren’t even sure would matter.

That’s incredibly valuable. They help keep us honest.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because I don’t like pretending a company appears out of nowhere fully formed.

This studio is a group of people I know, trust, and care about. And yes, I’m part of that too. Before Aetherian, I was a marketing director in the medical space, which sounds much fancier than it felt at the time. I built websites, worked on medical applications, handled SEO and branding strategy, and helped open hospitals. So the skills I used to build Guildstew and figure out how to talk about it didn’t come from nowhere. They came from a lot of previous work, a lot of weird problem-solving, and a career path that makes more sense in hindsight than it did while I was living it.

So that’s us.

An Air Force veteran. A lifelong friend who can turn a conversation into a functioning system. A marketing guy who actually likes people. Three artists who give the whole thing a soul. Two roadies who take it into the wild and tell us what’s real.

And me, somewhere in the middle of it, trying very hard to do right by all of them.

*See you at the table,*
Bojana & the Aetherian Crew