For design studio founders

Proposals are
the most expensive work
you never bill for.

A proposal usually takes a studio founder somewhere between four and eight hours, and none of it is billed. Paste your brief or call notes, select your discipline, and AirQuotes drafts the phases, deliverables, fees and terms for you to review. Once the client signs, the same scope becomes the project you run.

Apply for beta
Product
AirQuotes
Built for
7 disciplines · 1–15 people
Start
Free plan, no card
01 — Insight

The hours behind every
proposal you send.

These are estimates for a studio of one to fifteen people that writes every section of a proposal itself. AirQuotes drafts the phases, deliverables and fee structure from your brief, so the hours go on reviewing the draft instead of writing it.

Hours per proposal
4–8
None of it on a timesheet
Scoping, writing, formatting, chasing approval. Most of it happens on evenings or weekends, after the billable work is done.
Proposals sent per month
3–6
Each one starts from the last file
Every new brief means copying the previous proposal, deleting the old client’s details and rewriting the phases to fit the new project.
Hours per month
12–48
Up to six working days a month
Three to six proposals at four to eight hours each comes to 12 to 48 hours a month of work that never appears on an invoice.
02 — Alternatives

Every existing tool asks you to
supply the knowledge yourself.

None of these tools ship a discipline structure you can select. The phases, the deliverables and the scope language start with you every time, and once the client signs, they get typed again into whatever the studio runs the project in.

Approach A
Word · Notion · Google Docs
What works
Fully flexible. You control every word.
No subscription. Tools you already have open.
What doesn’t
Starts as a blank page. The phases and fee structure live in your head.
A junior produces a different document every time.
No shareable link, e-signature, or view tracking.
Approach B
Bonsai · HoneyBook · Studio Designer
What works
Proposals sit next to invoicing and contracts in one subscription.
Bonsai and HoneyBook publish design proposal templates.
What doesn’t
Those templates stop at cover letter, pricing table, and terms.
Studio Designer proposals are procurement documents for items, not fee and scope.
Approach C
Proposify · Better Proposals · Qwilr
What works
Purpose-built for proposals with shareable links and e-signature.
Covers the delivery side: send, sign, track.
What doesn’t
Proposify’s architecture template runs cover letter, experience, team, fee outline, terms. No phase breakdown.
Qwilr’s AI assembles from a content library you wrote, on the $75 per seat tier.
The tool stops at the signature. The project is set up somewhere else.
Approach D
ChatGPT · Claude · AI writing tools
What works
Generates proposal text from a short description.
Produces a first draft of scope language.
What doesn’t
Nothing is anchored to your fee structure or past proposals.
Two drafts of the same brief come back structured differently.
Output is plain text. No document, link, or signature.
03 — What would the ideal solution look like?

A tool that brings the context.
You bring the brief.

01
The discipline knowledge is already in the tool before you open it
Architecture projects run in phases. Brand strategy has a discovery stage. Interior design separates concept from documentation. A proposal tool should already know this. You select your discipline and the structure is there.
02
Paste your brief. The tool handles the rest.
Drop in your call notes, client brief, or rough scope. AirQuotes applies its knowledge of your discipline and returns a complete proposal with phases, deliverables, fee schedule, and terms. You review and adjust.
03
Share a link, get it signed, and start the project from the same scope.
The client gets a branded link and signs inside the proposal. You see when they open it and how long they spend on each section. Once it’s signed, the phases, deliverables and payment schedule carry into a project without retyping.
04 — Introducing AirQuotes

From the client call
to a sent proposal,
the same afternoon.

Paste your brief, call notes, or client email. Select your discipline. AirQuotes returns a complete proposal with phases, deliverables, fee milestones, terms, and exclusions already written. You review it, adjust where needed, and send it as a link, an A4 document or a presentation.

Built for 7 disciplines
Architecture
Interior Design
Landscape Design
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
Visual Design
Web Design
Studio size
1–15 people
Formats
Link, A4, presentation
Starting price
Free
Setup required
None
What you get from every proposal
Shareable link. Branded. No client login required.
E-signature built in. No separate tool needed.
View tracking. See when the client opens it and how long they spend on it.
A project, client portal and payment schedule once it’s signed.
05 — After the signature

The signed scope
becomes the project.

Start a project from a signed proposal with one click. The phases, deliverables, dates and payment schedule copy across, so the board starts with the work you priced.

Every deliverable is a card with a due date
Move cards across To do, In progress, With client and Done, or group the board by phase. Each phase shows its dates and how many of its cards are finished.
A portal your client opens without a password
Each person you add gets their own sign-in link by email. They see where the work is up to, what is waiting on them, the files you shared and every payment due.
Approvals recorded under the client’s name
Send a phase or a single card for approval with the files to look at. The client approves it or asks for changes with a note.
Phases, cards and payments on one calendar
A payment turns due when its phase is done. Add the payment link you already use and the client gets a Pay button next to it. AirQuotes never handles the money.
06 — Differentiated Value

What AirQuotes does that
the other four approaches don’t.

Primary
The discipline context is already in the tool
Other tools require you to supply the phases, deliverables, scope language, and fee structure before they generate anything useful. AirQuotes carries that knowledge for each of its seven disciplines. You paste your brief. It provides the rest.
Secondary
Consistent output regardless of who generates it
A junior on a deadline produces the same structured output as the founder on a clear afternoon. Quality stops depending on who had time that week.
Secondary
Proposals that reflect seniority before the first meeting
Clients judge a studio before they meet anyone from it. The proposal is often the first piece of work they see. AirQuotes makes that first document match the quality of everything that follows.
Last mile
Link, e-signature, tracking and the project in one place
Each proposal goes out as a branded link the client signs inside. You see who opened it and which sections they read, and once it’s signed the same scope starts the project.
Tertiary
Hours back on every proposal
At three to six proposals a month, drafting scope and fees from a blank page takes between one and a half and six working days. AirQuotes drafts that part, so the time goes on reviewing it.
Tertiary
Built for seven named disciplines
Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Design, Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Visual Design, and Web Design. Each with its own phase structure, deliverables, and scope language.
07 — Common questions

What studios ask
before they decide.

“We already use Word / Google Docs.”
AirQuotes is built for studios that start from a Word or Docs file. The question is how long each proposal takes and whether that time is ever billed. If it’s more than two hours, try handing the first draft over on one real brief.
“Can’t ChatGPT do this?”
It can, and the text it writes is usually fine. The document is where it stops. AirQuotes sends the proposal as a branded link the client signs on the spot, and shows you when they opened it and how long they spent reading it. That tells you whether to follow up on Tuesday or wait, and it replaces the PDF, the email thread, and the separate e-signature tool.
“We don’t send that many proposals.”
Three proposals a month at four hours each is twelve hours of unbilled work, a day and a half every month. The Free plan covers two proposals a month, so a studio sending fewer than that can stay on it.
“We have a template we use.”
How long does it take to fill out properly? And what happens when a junior fills it out on a Friday afternoon instead of you? AirQuotes produces the same structured output regardless of who runs it or how much time they have.
08 — The ask

Try it on your next proposal.
Keep the result either way.

What you get in the beta
All 7 disciplines, scoped and ready to run
Unlimited proposals while the beta is open
Shareable link and e-signature on every proposal
View tracking so you know when a client opens it
Link, A4 or presentation, with PDF export
Projects with a client portal, approvals and payments
A direct line to us when something breaks
What we ask in return
Apply and tell us your studio type and size
Use it on a real proposal, not a throwaway test
Send us two minutes of feedback after you send it
Flag anything that reads wrong for your discipline
Keep the output either way, paid plan or not
Apply for beta
Free for early studios · airquotes.app