About Us

The Story of How Wando Started

The Builder Who Started it All

Brent Witmen

As a lifelong artist, writer, and programmer, I spent years writing and planning out artwork for my epic story world, compiling hundreds of concept sketches, and not planning for release at all. I was focused on my story world and artistic vision, until one day I realized my to-do list for polishing artwork had grown to an unmanageable size, unable to afford help, but unwilling to scale back my dream project, I began looking for solutions.

Going Against the Tide

Artists and creative professionals are frequently told that using AI makes their work less real and meaningful. However, during my research into AI art communities I found below the surface of rapid AI generation there were artists pouring just as much time, effort, and creative energy into AI-assisted art as they did their traditional art, all in an effort to push their output quality to new limits. After seeing how AI was truly being used by the creative community, I began believing in a future where humans took control of AI and used it to push their own abilities, not replace them, a future where AI is freely used to refine concepts, do true-to-vision edits, add last-mile polish, and adapt artwork to different media without losing the soul behind it.

Keeping AI a Tool for Expression, Not a Cursed Genie

Which led me to see AI as a path forward, thus I began experimenting with the available AI tools, but instead of finding useful tools to make my project move faster, I found a seemingly never-ending spiral of technicalities. Local AI tools offered an on-demand solution that came with steep learning curves, and worst of all, a legal and ethical minefield that could easily result in finalized artwork that couldn’t be used in a commercial product. Closed-source cloud providers largely solved the commercial issues, as long as I avoided the “free” and “personal use” subscription services, but were fundamentally limited by their online nature and fragmented ecosystems built to lock me in and run on my cellphone rather than provide me the tools I actually needed to get work done right, not just fast.

Built for a Purpose, not a Sales Pitch

I wanted to own my images and workflow without paying to keep images out of public galleries. I was frustrated with juggling subscriptions and the lack of good options, and that’s when I remembered that I’m also a programmer, not just a writer and artist. This meant I could take a detour and build a tool that worked for and not against me, that gave me freedom where other options gave me limitations, that allowed for fast fluid workflows where others offered resistance, or worse hard stops. Programming started and Wando was born.

Wando was developed as a non-subscription based program because being able to trust that the tools you rely on are going to be available when you wake up tomorrow is important. Wando is built with redundancy in mind where possible for this very piece of mind. I have a lot of books to illustrate. I don’t want my creative flow to be disrupted by something as silly as a website or web browser update, and I certainly don’t want access to my artwork gated off by a squirrel chewing through my internet cable. I’m not just a programmer, I’m actively using Wando for my own projects, and it is evolving with me as a value added power tool to support my dreams – and hopefully the dreams of others as well.

The Believer — Shasta Palmer

From Personal Power Tool to Community Resource

My relationship with Wando began because trying to use GPT for everything was causing massive frustration and slowing down my business building progress.

I was trying to create images to test business ideas, but getting the right size, removing strange extra words, and moving between different AI tools had become exhausting. I did not have a graphic design degree, and I barely knew how to use Paint, let alone editing software. Canva was slightly better, but still ridiculously frustrating. Something that was supposed to help me move faster was taking hours and costing me money in subscriptions I rarely used enough.

Then Wando’s programmer let me test an early version of the program.

For the first time, I could create images in the exact size I needed and erase unwanted details without learning complicated design software. I immediately saw the potential.

From there, Wando began growing around the real problems I faced: built-in art-style prompts, custom image sizes, social media planning, simple editing tools, and an approval system that allowed people without Wando to review images.

Each feature came from something I genuinely needed.

Wando also began to fit into my larger vision for collaborative entrepreneurship. I believe some entrepreneurs are not meant to figure everything out alone. They learn and build better when someone works beside them, answers their questions, and helps them keep moving.

I wanted Wando to be more than just another program that people downloaded and struggled with in isolation. I saw it becoming part of live, done-with-you learning and the Building Extraordinary community, where entrepreneurs could find support, feedback, and connection while testing their ideas.

An Alliance Was Born

Brent would build the technology. I would help shape who it served and get it into the hands of the people who it could benefit the most.

Wando began as a solution to one frustrating image problem. I believe it can become an essential part of the startup journey—helping entrepreneurs test ideas, create with confidence, and move forward without having to build alone.

Your Ideas. Your Images. Your Control.