1. How are you?

Are you staying reasonably happy? Taking care of yourself? If not, I hope you’re able to find a bit of hope and momentum soon.

We’re doing alright over here—grateful, energized, and yes, feeling the weight of the climb. As we continue pushing Good Enough toward Mount Business’s summit of sustainability, the trail is steep and sometimes unclear. We’re learning a lot, stretching ourselves, and staying grounded in the belief that our work matters.

We believe in what we’re building. We believe in each other. And even when the trail gets rocky, we’re still climbing.

As a little experiment, I’ve turned on comments for this issue. If you’ve found any helpful self-care strategies lately, we’d love to hear them. Let’s swap some encouragement. Thank you!

—Barry

2. Studio Update

We’re still on the lookout for the teams and small businesses that Jelly can really serve. Recently, we’ve been sharpening our approach to search ads (with some expert help!) and are exploring the idea of temporary marketing support (the cool kids call them “fractional CMOs”).

Also in startupland: spammers 👿 tried to party crash Jelly. James has been working hard to preserve Jelly’s good name and keep the bad actors at bay. It’s a rite of passage for growing SaaS apps, especially those in the email space. We’re navigating it with vigilance and some good-natured sighing.

Some other bright spots:

• Cade has been talking with everyone about getting the word out on Jelly

• Patrick is polishing the email editor (yes, it’s even smoother now)

• Lettini’s refining our outreach emails–we’re always interested in talking with customers about how Jelly is working for them

• Oh—and Pika now supports 🎵 Apple Music embedding 🎵

One last thing: we’ve resumed our Meet the Team blog series. Meet Barry!

3. Sharing is Caring

You get a link! You get a link!

• It’s fascinating to read about Craig Mod’s launch of the quirky, private social network, The Good Place

• Lettini does not recommend DMV websites, so I guess you don’t get a link to the New York DMV

• Maybe AI-based customer support is going down the wrong path? Who’s to say?!

• Get thee back to a website (try Pika!)

• To wit, Hypertext TV

• To wit, po.ta.to

4. In Conclusion

I hope some of the words or links herein contributed to the needle moving a little more to the positive side of your mood-gauge.

Don’t forget to cheer for the Timberwolves to beat the Lakers in the NBA playoffs. Nobody (except for all of the media companies) really wants the Lakers to win, do they? Timberwolves are seeded lower. Everyone likes an underdog, yes? Do the right thing!

—Barry