// 01 · Company facts
Founded
2026
Location
Oakland, CA
Website
https://bloodyfingersoftware.com
Press contact
john@bloodyfingersoftware.com
One-liner
Bloody Finger Software is an independent studio building AI-powered creative tools for advertisers, filmmakers, and operators who do the actual work.
// 02 · About the studio
Bloody Finger Software is a one-person independent studio founded by John LaCroix — Emmy-winning creative director. The studio builds practical AI tools for the people who have to ship: ad operators, video producers, and the kind of creative professionals who've burned through enough platform dashboards to know what's actually broken. The studio's products — TheAdBench.AI, AxeBlock EDIT, AI Cinema, and Submissive Chicken — each attack a specific production bottleneck. No SaaS bloat. No sales calls. Ship it and see.
// 03 · Founder
John LaCroix
Founder & Creative Director
John LaCroix is an Emmy-winning creative director who built and ran creative operations for some of the world's biggest retail and tech brands before founding Bloody Finger Software. He built TheAdBench.AI from years of reviewing, testing, and scaling retail ad creative at volume — first as a human, then as a system.
// 04 · Products
AdTech / Creative Intelligence
TheAdBench.AI →AI creative director that scores short-form ad creative before the media spend happens.
Developer Tools / Content
AxeBlock EDIT →Real-time MIDI editor for the Fractal Axe-Fx III and VP4 — plus the Axe-Fx II family, with FM9, FM3, and AM4 editing built but not yet confirmed on hardware. Control presets, scenes, every block, and the routing grid from your iPhone or iPad — wired over USB-C or wireless over Bluetooth MIDI. Coming soon to the App Store; $9.99, no subscription, no in-app purchases.
Creative Tools / Open Source
AI Cinema →Open-source browser-based timeline editor for AI-generated short-form video.
Consumer / Viral Tool
Submissive Chicken →A cynical, burned-out chicken that does whatever you type. Free. No sign-up. No dignity.
// AxeBlock EDIT
AxeBlock EDIT press kit
App icon · 1024 px · download
AxeBlock EDIT is a real-time editor for Fractal Audio guitar processors, on iPad and iPhone. It edits the Axe-Fx III, the Axe-Fx II family and the VP4: presets, scenes, channels, every block's parameters and the routing grid, synced both ways with the unit. It works in the edit buffer, so nothing is written to a stored preset until the player saves. No accounts, no ads, no tracking. Built by one guitarist at Bloody Finger Software.
Price
$9.99 USD, one-time. No subscription.
Platforms
iPad and iPhone · Apple Watch companion (not yet tested on a real Watch)
Coming soon
AxeBlock EDIT for Android · LegacyBlock EDIT for Mac and Windows
Edits
Axe-Fx III · Axe-Fx II, II XL, II XL+ · VP4
Product page
bloodyfingersoftware.com/axe-block-edit
facebook.com/profile.php?id=61592180573411
Key points — Built native. Built for the stage.
- I wrote AxeBlock EDIT in Swift, Apple's own language, so it's a real iPhone, iPad and Mac app, not a web page in a wrapper. Knobs track your finger in real time.
- Fractal's own editors live on a desktop. Mine goes where you play: iPhone, iPad, Mac, and a companion on your Apple Watch (not yet tested on a real Watch).
- Every edit lands in your unit's edit buffer, and nothing is saved until you tap Save. It's built to be safe on a live rig.
- It talks to your unit directly over USB, Bluetooth (WIDI) or 5-pin MIDI, depending on the unit. No account, no cloud, no tracking.
// 05 · Approved quotes
These quotes may be used in press coverage without additional approval.
“I learned the shape of this problem reviewing retail ad creative at enterprise scale. The review process was slow and subjective. That's what I built TheAdBench.AI to fix.”
— John LaCroix, Founder · On the origin of TheAdBench.AI
“AI has made it cheap to generate many ad variations, but creative selection is now the actual bottleneck.”
— John LaCroix, Founder · On the state of AI ad creative
// 06 · Assets
To request high-resolution assets, email john@bloodyfingersoftware.com.
logo
Logo — Dark background
SVG wordmark on transparent / dark background
logo
Logo — Light background
SVG wordmark on white / light background
lockup
Hero image
Bloody fingertips on guitar strings — brand hero
screenshot
TheAdBench.AI — product screenshot
Dashboard view on laptop
screenshot
AxeBlock EDIT — product screenshot
Editor on iPad
screenshot
Submissive Chicken — screenshot
The chicken at the terminal
// 07 · Boilerplate
For “About Bloody Finger Software” in coverage:
Bloody Finger Software is an independent studio building AI-powered creative tools for advertisers, filmmakers, and operators. Founded by Emmy-winning creative director John LaCroix, the studio's products include TheAdBench.AI (AI ad scoring), AxeBlock EDIT (real-time MIDI editing for Fractal Axe-Fx guitar processors), AI Cinema (browser-based video timeline), and Submissive Chicken. Headquartered in Oakland, CA. bloodyfingersoftware.com