Jam Genies: Expert Access for Small Startups

With the increasing prevalence of remote work, the market for collaborative tools is experiencing significant expansion. Jam, a platform dedicated to website editing and enhancement, is contributing to this trend with the launch of its newest feature: Jam Genies.

Jam Genies functions as a network of highly skilled product specialists available to Jam users for expert guidance and advice tailored to their specific challenges.

According to Cofounder Dani Grant, many smaller and newer companies lack the financial resources to engage consultants, who often command high fees and require minimum project commitments. Obtaining focused, affordable advice can be a substantial hurdle.

This is the problem Jam Genies aims to solve.

The Genies represent a diverse range of expertise, including investors, designers, branding professionals, and growth marketers. The network includes:

Brianne Kimmel – Angel investor and the founder of Worklife VC. She has invested in companies like Webflow, Hopin, and over 40 other software businesses shaping the future of work.
Erik Torenberg – Partner at Village Global, a venture fund supported by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and others. He was also a founding team member at Product Hunt.
Sahil Lavingia – Founder & CEO of Gumroad, a former engineer at Pinterest, and an angel investor deploying $10 million annually through shl.vc.
Iheanyi Ekechukwu – A former engineer now working as an angel investor and scout investor for Kleiner Perkins.
Soleio – Facebook’s second product designer, previously the head of design at Dropbox, and currently an advisor at Figma. He invests in design-centric founders through Combine.
Dara Oke – Product design lead at Netflix, with prior experience designing and developing products at Microsoft, Twitter, and Intel.
Katie Suskin – A designer responsible for the creation of popular products such as Microsoft Calendar, OkCupid, Tia, and Jam.
Julius Tarng – He played a key role in scaling design at Webflow and previously led design tooling initiatives at Facebook.
Abe Vizcarra – Currently the brand lead at Fast, and formerly the Global Design Director at Snap Inc.
Tiffany Zhong – CEO of Zebra IQ, and recognized by Forbes as a leading expert among Gen Z.
Nicole Obst – Previously the Head of Web Growth (B2C) at Dropbox and the Head of Growth at Loom.
James Sherrett – The ninth employee at Slack, where he spearheaded the initial marketing and sales efforts.
Asher King Abramson – CEO at Got Users, a growth marketing platform widely utilized by startups in Silicon Valley.

Jam platform users can select a Genie and schedule a session via Calendly. These sessions are thirty minutes in length and are offered at a fixed rate of $250, with all proceeds going directly to the Genie.

Jam secured $3.5 million in funding in October from investors including Union Square Ventures, Version One Ventures, BoxGroup, Village Global, and various angel investors, to support growth and continued product development. Jam Genies represents, in many ways, a strategic initiative to introduce early-stage startups to the benefits of the platform.

The core Jam product enables collaborative website work for developers and designers, facilitating commenting, change discussions, and task creation and assignment. The platform offers integrations with commonly used tools like Jira, Trello, Github, Slack, Figma, and others.

Since its October 2020 launch, the company has attracted 4,000 customers to its private beta waitlist, and users have created 14,000 comments on the platform. The introduction of Jam Genies is expected to further accelerate this growth.