We built Omako because we were tired of watching good freelancers get burned.
Not by bad clients. Not by the economy. By the tools. By the admin. By the gap between "we agreed on this" and "prove it."
To give every freelancer the tools they deserve so they can build a protected, sustainable business doing work they love.
What Omako exists to do, every day, for every user.
"Your work, your protection."
We talked to 80 freelancers. Designers, developers, writers, consultants, motion artists, strategists. Every single one had a version of the same story.
A client agreed to three pages. Then wanted seven. A scope that started as "quick social content" quietly became a brand strategy. An invoice sent, seen, marked read in WhatsApp. Then silence for three weeks.
Nobody was doing anything malicious. The problem was the infrastructure. Freelancers were managing professional agreements through WhatsApp messages, PDF proposals nobody could sign, Google Docs with vague scope, and Excel sheets that went stale. The client wasn't being difficult. The tools just didn't protect anyone.
Good tools. Just not for this.
Bonsai is built for US freelancers on flat-rate projects. Wave is accounting software with invoicing bolted on. Zoho is an enterprise suite that happens to have a free tier. None of them understand GST, INR, Indian client behaviour, or the fact that most of your client conversations happen on WhatsApp.
The international tools are well-built. They're just not for you. And the Indian options? Most are billing software wrapped in a freelancer costume. They start and end at the invoice. Everything before it, and everything between it, you're still on your own.
Three things we refuse to compromise on.
Freelancers shouldn't have to choose between getting paid and keeping the relationship.
The right infrastructure makes it possible to be both professional and warm. A paper trail doesn't have to feel adversarial. A scope boundary doesn't have to be an argument. Omako is the system that holds the line, so you don't have to.
The paper trail should protect you without making you look difficult.
When a client asks "wait, did we agree on 3 rounds or 5?" Omako has the answer, in a format that reassures rather than accuses. The record is neutral. The relationship stays warm.
Changing how you work shouldn't be the price of using a tool.
We've seen too many tools that demand you restructure your entire practice before they'll work for you. Omako fits around the way you already work. The first time you use it, it should feel like you've always had it.
Four rules every feature is measured against.
Productivity First. Always.
That's our one design principle. Omako should never block your work, never force you to fill in a form before you can do the thing you came to do, never add friction in the name of "process."
Everything in the stack is either open-source at its core or replaceable. Your data lives in a Postgres database you could export tomorrow. We chose Supabase over proprietary databases, Razorpay over Stripe (for India), Cloudflare R2 over S3 (no per-request fees). Every choice has a clean exit ramp.
See exactly what Omako is built on →Omako becomes the default workflow platform for independent creative professionals worldwide: the tool freelancers reach for on day one, and never outgrow.
Starting with Indian freelancers and small agencies, Omako is built ground-up for markets where informal client relationships, GST complexity, and cash flow risk are the norm, not the exception. As trust and traction grow, the platform expands to serve independent professionals in any market where freelancers deserve better than spreadsheets and WhatsApp.
Who's behind itShwez Studio LLP, a small design and engineering studio based in India.
We're designers, engineers, and freelancers ourselves. We've been on the wrong side of a scope-creep argument. We've sent "just checking in on the invoice" messages more times than we'd like to admit. We built Omako because we needed it.
We're not a venture-backed company optimising for growth metrics. We're a small team building something we believe in, for people we respect. If Omako helps even half the freelancers we've spoken to stop losing sleep over admin, that's a good product.
Be one of the first 500.
Drop your email and we'll write back when your cohort opens. Six months of Pro on the house, and a real human on the other end if you ever need one.