Frequently Asked Questions

What is Zep Tepi Studio?

Zep Tepi Studio is a founder-led consulting practice building branding, strategy, fractional leadership, and automation systems for creative and cultural practices that refuse to operate through extraction. The studio was founded in 2023 by Julieta Ruiz.

Who runs Zep Tepi Studio?

Three people hold it together. Julieta Ruiz is the founder and strategist. Shery is the automation and systems engineer who builds everything inside Aparato. Maria Jose is the visual information designer and creative director behind the studio's identity work. Each holds a distinct part of the practice, not overlapping titles for the same work.

Does Zep Tepi Studio use AI to replace people?

No. Every system built through Aparato is held to one test: if a tool makes a client's team smaller, more replaceable, or more dependent, we don't build it. We build automation that clears repetitive work so people have more room for the parts of the job that actually needed a person, not a reason to need fewer people.

What is the difference between Atelier and Aparato?

Atelier is where the studio does branding and strategy work: identity, positioning, the case for why a practice exists. Aparato is where Shery builds the automation itself, the workflows and integrations that run inside a client's practice every day, documented and owned entirely by the client once it's built.

Where is Zep Tepi Studio based?

The studio works across Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Argentina, built to serve founder-led creative and cultural practices wherever they are rather than around a single office.

What kind of clients does Zep Tepi Studio work with?

Founder-led creative agencies, design studios, and cultural organizations, including galleries and human rights centers, through Atelier. Through Aparato, we also build automation for practices further afield, wherever a repetitive call, intake, or workflow bottleneck is costing real time: engineering firms, law firms, real estate agencies, staffing and recruitment agencies, healthcare clinics, accounting and CPA firms, logistics and dispatch operations, marketing agencies, restaurants and hospitality businesses, and service-based operations like transport, funeral, and appointment-based practices that run on a phone that never stops ringing. Aparato is built in tiers, from Semilla to Ecosistema, so the same standard holds at every size: automation that clears repetitive work without costing the practice the people who make it trustworthy.

How is Aparato's automation work scoped and priced?

Aparato is built in three tiers: Semilla for individuals, freelancers, and early-stage founders who need one or two workflows cleared; Estructura for growing studios and agencies with multiple operational layers; and Ecosistema for organizations scaling past what a single system can hold. Each engagement is scoped to what the practice actually needs, so the exact setup cost is set after that conversation, not before it. What doesn't change: there's no recurring subscription. Once a system is built and handed over, it's yours to run, and where a system carries an ongoing usage cost (a call-handling system billed by call volume, for example), that's the only ongoing cost involved, never a flat monthly fee.

Will the AI ever handle a sensitive or emotional call on its own?

No. The system is built to recognize when a call needs a person, a death notification, a distressed client, anything outside routine scheduling or intake, and hands off immediately. It answers the calls that would otherwise go to voicemail, it doesn't replace judgment on the calls that need it.

How does Zep Tepi Studio think about AI in general?

There's a real difference between using AI to make an existing team more capable and using it to justify having fewer people. Zep Tepi only builds the first kind. If an AI adoption plan starts with a target headcount reduction instead of a target for what the remaining team gets to stop doing, we won't build it, whatever it's called.

How can I get in touch with Zep Tepi Studio?

The quickest way is the contact form, or email hello@zeptepi-consulting.com directly.