CMO & Co-Founder, Penji

This interview was not sponsored, but the post does contain an affiliate link to Penji. If you’re interested in trying out their service, please consider using my link below:
https://penji.co/pricing/?affiliate=JOSHMILES15

Today we have an interesting topic to explore as we chat with Johnathan Grzybowski. He is the Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of Penji, an on-demand graphic design service that delivers fast turnaround, simple, and affordable.

Some of you listening might have shivered a little when I said that, and some of you might have been energized... and it's that contrast that I'm hoping to explore further today...

You may notice in the audio that I call this "118." Originally this was 118, and I didn't circle back to re-record the audio saying 119, or a different MilesHerndon credit at the end. Sorry about that. We'll do better next time.

About Johnathan Grzybowski

Prior to Penji, Johnathan founded multiple marketing-related startups and worked for Apple. Despite working for one of the best companies in the world, he still felt unfulfilled, having been born an entrepreneur. This led him to quit and start a business doing social media management.

It wasn't as successful, and after the initial failure, he started his own agency, which set the precedent for where he is today. Back then, he had a hard time finding graphic designers, which led him to do it himself even if he was the least qualified.

He then proceeded to search through different websites and platforms to find good designers. He understood the huge problem of getting quality designs and went ahead to find the solution. This resulted in Penji's current business model, which is to provide unlimited graphic design.

What is Penji?

Penji has been named as "top startup to watch", according to Philadelphia Magazine and mentioned in major publications like Success Magazine, Huffington Post, Forbes, and Inc. They provide unlimited graphic designs with unlimited revisions at an affordable price.

Its service is ideal for those who don't have the time to spend doing their own designs. Johnathan calls Penji an ancillary solution for businesses. Companies that have their own graphic designer will benefit from Penji. Their main task is to strategize and develop game plans while Penji takes care of medial tasks such as banner ads or landing page designs.

Who are the Penji Clients?

Jonathan and his co-founder saw a need in the market and uniquely positioned themselves to create a service. And as agency people themselves, they understood how difficult it is to find a reliable source of quality graphic design. Penji was founded to provide a solution to that problem.

Penji is a good fit for startups, agencies, web, and app design developers. Their ultimate customers also include organizations who have marketing teams that need a constant supply of graphic design. This is primarily because of their affordability, efficiency, and reliability.

Startups get the most from Penji as they have flexible and affordable plans. Agencies find the service useful not only because of its affordability but also of its reliability. Penji is available any time you need them and delivers designs when you need them. This is because they have talented designers from overseas who can give you your design regardless of the time of day.

Penji is not meant to take over anyone's job. Its primary purpose is to act as an assistant to your graphic design team. However, this doesn't mean that Penji is only capable of small tasks. Their designers can take on a wide range of designs such as custom illustrations or infographics.

What Makes Penji Different?

In Johnathan's words, Penji offers the best graphic design on the planet. What differentiates them from their competition is the personalization they provide. Services such as 99Designs primarily use templates that offer nothing specific to the individual.

Additionally, freelancers or designs from Fiverr require that you interview them, for one, to find the best fit. That would mean a waste of your time and resources. With Penji, you sign up and start submitting design requests.

Their platform offers the opportunity to collaborate in real-time with their designers. Having a good communication flow allows you to tell your designers precisely what you need in the project. Although they don't have phone support to let you speak directly to your designer, the platform's messaging function works really well.

How Does Penji Work?

When you sign up for any of Penji's plans, you'll get access to their dashboard. This is where you'll submit your design requests and communicate with the designers. Your project will be automatically assigned to the best designer for the job. You also have the option of finding a different designer if the one assigned to you is not a good fit.

After 24 to 48 hours, you will get your first draft. You can review it and send revisions if you need to. It all happens on the platform—no back and forth emails that would slow down your work process. You just point your mouse to what you want to be changed, and their designers will revise it.

Once satisfied with the design, you can instantly download your project straight from the platform. The system stores your projects and lets you come back to them anytime you need to.

Their monthly subscription rates let you send as many design requests as you can in a month. From web design to social media graphics, they have designers specializing in a variety of design categories. You no longer have to vet applicants as they have a team of professional designers.

Why Choose Penji?

Claiming to add the element of help to those who are bogged down with creativity walls, Penji offers a no-contract subscription. This means that they can opt-out any time they need to. Their services are perfect for businesses that have so much work that they need additional help. When the workload gets low, you can always cancel your subscription and come back when you need them again.

When you pay their quarterly or yearly rates, you'll get as much as a 15% discount. For bigger savings, especially for listeners of this podcast, use the code JOSHMILES15.