In 2003, we had several conversations with customers who asked for a plug-in that would recreate the look of film. Our best product ideas came from customer suggestions. We have always devoted real humans to tech support so we could learn from our customers. Even many competitors were happy to share their knowledge. He learned how to do press relations by talking to reporters. He was surprised by how generous people were with their knowledge if you simply ask and listen carefully. He learned by talking to experienced people. Listening and LearningĪt first, Jeff didn’t know anything about running a business or making commercial software. His roommate’s cat would occasionally barf on invoices. He wore a lot of hats – programming, taking orders, shipping packages, duplicating floppy disks, assembling manuals, and designing ads. He worked out of his apartment, using his roommate’s computer during the day to write the software. His family thought he was crazy for dropping out of school, and wouldn’t invest in the business.
The early days at Alien Skin were a typical garage startup story. Jeff created Eye Candy, one of the first commercial Photoshop plug-ins, to replace long recipes for special effects. In those days it lacked many useful features people take for granted today. He noticed people struggling to use Adobe Photoshop. Our FounderĪlien Skin’s founder, Jeff Butterworth, dropped out of computer science graduate school because he was interested in creating finished software products that helped people with real work. We thought you might enjoy hearing the story of how we got where we are today. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Alien Skin Software! A big milestone like that is an opportunity to look back on our history.