Who we are
Joe Biel - CEO, co-founder
Joe founded Microcosm Publishing in 1996, and led the company to be an early adopter of technology solutions, including
ecommerce and, starting in 2002, custom software to run all of Microcosm’s systems, which led to the development of
WorkingLit. Joe provides the product direction and publishing know-how that fuels WorkingLit to this day. Joe @ LinkedIn
Contact Joe about funding and strategic partnerships.
Elly Blue - COO, co-founder
Elly joined Microcosm in 2015, taking over management of marketing and sales, editorial… and software development. She started
laying out the blueprint for WorkingLit in 2019 before being derailed for a few years by the pandemic. When she isn’t
scheming to take back publishing from the dinosaurs, she’s running day-to-day operations at Microcosm. Elly @ LinkedIn
Contact Elly about publicity, events, and marketing.
Ben Parzybok - CTO
Coming from a successful exit from his last software-as-a-service company, Ben brings SaaS startup experience and technical expertise to the project.
And as a published novelist, publishing is dear to his heart. Ben @ LinkedIn
Contact Ben about the product roadmap, feature requests, and integrations.
Join our team
Are you interested in working with us to transform the publishing industry? We don’t currently have any job openings, but when we do we’ll post them first to our email list. And feel free to get in touch with creative ideas about how to work together. Contact Us
Become a member-owner
WorkingLit is in the process of becoming a member-owned co-op. Sign up for our email list or contact Us for more information.
Past team members and partners
We are standing on the shoulders of smart developers, whose combined understanding of books and coding built a solid foundation for WorkingLit. Nate Beaty built and maintains Microcosm’s legacy database software, which started it all. Ru Mehendale painstakingly created the original design and the systems that make WorkingLit work behind the scenes. Nellie McKesson laid out the infrastructure and got us started.