The Future Of Stylizer: A Personal Address

Dear Stylizer Fan,

In case we haven't met yet, allow me to introduce myself: I'm Andrew, co-founder of Skybound (with my brother Paul) and currently leading the mission to build the world's most elegant CSS design tool.

When Paul and I launched Stylizer back in 2006, we were hacking out of a garage next door to a sheep barn in rural Ontario, Canada. Lacking the resources to build a “real” web design app, we settled for a pure CSS editor, shipping a Windows-only Excel rip that lacked any integrated browser and couldn't even load CSS—style sheets could only be saved!

But thanks to tireless promotion by our beloved customers, Stylizer flourished, and we bootstrapped without any external funding. By 2010, we had stockpiled enough cash to risk building the elusive end-to-end design app we were craving. We relocated to Waterloo—the heart of technology in Canada—and hired nearly a dozen brilliant minds, stretching our resources to the bone while we submersed ourselves in R&D.

The new app, however, stole our hearts in a company-wide heist that left Stylizer in the dust. By 2013 we were still months away from a useful product and Stylizer was puttering into obsolescence. We needed dramatic change, and in February, it came—realizing that both products could co-exist, Paul agreed to grassroots a fresh startup to launch the new app, and I took the opportunity to refocus Skybound entirely on Stylizer.

Stylizer 6 is now on track to ship by the end of the year. The most exciting features we are planning:

  • Complete CSS3 support with a dynamic code grid and remote control that works for any CSS, even experimental syntax
  • Real-time preview on external devices and browsers
  • LESS/SASS support
  • Responsive design (media queries today, feature queries tomorrow)

And of course, an even more simplified UI and workflow.

I'm so excited about all of these features finally coming to Stylizer and I personally can't wait to witness the kind of magic you will make with it.

Best regards,

Andrew Young
Skybound Software