Our Story
My notebook sucked.
Hi, my name is Ryan Hejl and I’m a sophomore at Kent State University and the founder of Jotz.
It started with a frustration I couldn't shake. Every notebook I'd ever used shared the same fundamental flaw. Spiral coils hitting my hand. “Hardcovers” that needed a secondary writing surface. One page style for everyone. One size. One binding. Take it or leave it.
I left it. And spent over two years building something better.
Not just a better notebook. A completely reimagined system—one where every component is interchangeable, every surface is engineered, and every decision puts you first. Thirty prototypes. Hundreds of hours in OnShape. A 3D printer running through the night more times than I can count.
One belief never wavered through all of it:
The products you use every day should reflect who you are. Not the other way around.
That's why I built Jotz.
A picture of me hiking through the Great Smoky Mountains in 2024
The idea came to me in my second week of college.
I was sitting in a freshman introduction to business course, half paying attention, watching the kinds of people around me. Different majors. Different minds. Different ways of thinking. And I kept asking myself—why isn't there a notebook in the bookstore designed for business students? Or nursing students? Or fashion students? Why does everyone carry the same notebook?
Initially Jotz was going to be simple—a company that built you a custom notebook based on your major and how you think. Shipping an assembled notebook to you, spiral bound. But I couldn't stop there.
I started buying every notebook I could find. Testing a new one every week. Looking for what worked and what didn't.
There was a lot that didn't work.
Spiral bindings prevented you from ever changing your paper. Page style options were limited to four basic formats — and the ones that tried to be different were overwhelming. The spiral coil sat directly in the path of your writing hand. Hardcovers weren't hard — they were thick cardboard that bent the moment you picked them up without a desk underneath. Even the modular systems that existed had problems. Disc bindings required six or more discs just to hold a full stack of paper together—and if you overfilled them, pages fell off.
So I decided notebooks needed a full overhaul. And I was going to be the one to do it.
The first ever “Squared-Spiral” design I made.
Make it yours.
My Mission
I believe everyone is unique. And the tools they carry should reflect that. Jotz is built around one idea — full modularity. Your cover. Your links. Your page styles. Your notebook. Built by you, for you, every time
Our Planet
My Commitment
Physical notebooks have a cost nobody talks about. Paper comes from trees. I identified this early and made a commitment — every page pack sold plants one tree through our partnership with Plant With Purpose. I can't eliminate my footprint entirely. But I refuse to ignore it.
