Hello friends,
You may notice a new look & feel this week! We've migrated from Ghost to Substack, which is great for newsletters with no intention of monetizing.
A quick bit of housekeeping: Yem Jam is at least 10x more enjoyable when it’s easy to find in your inbox. Please move us to your Primary tab or out of your spam folder. 🙏
The Updates
The image below is a high-level view of what we’re working on:
We’re making progress on setting up the database and are pulling data from Stripe via an API. We're starting to see glimmers of hope with pulling data from Substack in a manageable way. All helpful as we keep an eye towards automating a lot of the reporting & forecasting. And more important, to support testing various growth efforts that help newsletters grow.
On that note, we're launching some exciting experiments this week. Mostly aimed at re-engaging dormant subs (i.e. haven't opened an email in the past 30+ days) and preventing paid cancels. Hope to report back with some learnings soon.
The Magic of Teams
Every week is a rollercoaster ride. Some weeks, it feels like the wind is at our backs and we have unstoppable momentum. Other weeks (okay, most weeks), it feels like swimming in quicksand.
The amount of times we hear "no" is laughable. And it can be subtle. Being ghosted by potential customers, even folks you thought you had a good relationship with. Family telling you it's time to get a real job. Crickets from folks you’re excited to work with.
I don't mention this for sympathy - I wouldn't trade the experience for anything (at least for now!). But it has made me realize one thing: the magic of teams.
In any situation where there's a high degree of uncertainty, it's so helpful to have a team. I was lucky to be part of amazing teams at Hulu and Crunchyroll. It was fun to share in the celebrations with friends. More so, it was important to pick each other up during the lows. I learned a ton from my teammates - they helped me become a much better person. (And there was, and still is, a lot of room for improvement!)
Part of what I'm most excited about is finding the right people to go on this adventure with.
That’s it for this week. Please share any thoughts on the above, would love to hear from you. And as always, thank you for your support.