From 141 Ideas to a Trusted Tool: Jam.dev's Story

In this episode of the Smooth Operators Guide by LiveDocs, we sit down with Dani Grant, co-founder of Jam.dev, a powerful tool used by over 125,000 people to fix bugs faster. With 3 million bugs fixed and counting, Jam.dev is transforming the way teams manage product issues. Dani shares her journey, the story behind Jam, and her experience as a first-time founder.

From Brainstorming 141 Ideas to Building Jam

Ani: Welcome, Dani, to a new episode of the Smooth Operators Guide! We’re excited to have you here. Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself to our listeners?

Dani: Thanks so much for having me! I’m the co-founder of Jam.dev. We help over 125,000 people fix bugs faster, and we just crossed 3 million bugs fixed. No one’s favorite part of software development is dealing with bugs. Everyone wants to get back to building new features, and that’s what Jam is all about, getting you back to the work you really love.

The Founding Story of Jam.dev

Ani: I’m an active user of Jam myself, and I’ve seen how powerful it is, especially for product people. I recently saw a post where you talked about coming up with 100+ ideas before deciding on Jam. 

Can you share Jam's founding story and what inspired you to pursue this particular idea?

Dani: Yeah, we got so lucky! My co-founder and I were planning to start a company together, and like any first-time founders, we made a Notion document with all our ideas, 141 ideas, to be exact. We had a call to go through them and pick one, but before we could even open the document, we started chatting about our old team and the product launch that was happening at the time.

We were gossiping about how PMs (product managers) were asking engineers to do things like update spreadsheets, and it hit us, there was no good tooling for PM-to-engineer collaboration. We knew this problem firsthand because we’d experienced it ourselves. So instead of diving into that long list of random ideas, we thought, “Should we just solve this problem that’s so personal to us?”

One thing I didn’t fully appreciate when starting out is that if a startup works according to plan, it could consume 10 to 15 years of your life, maybe more. So if you're going to dedicate that much time, it has to mean something to you. It would’ve been challenging to work on one of the random ideas we initially considered, but working on something that we personally faced made it feel much more aligned.

Also, when you choose a company to start, you're also deciding how you’ll spend a lot of your time, what people you'll talk to, your lifestyle, and how much travel you’ll do. We chose to build for builders, and now I get to talk to people like you, who are trying to change corners of the world through software. It’s inspiring, and I feel incredibly lucky that we didn’t look at those 141 ideas and just built Jam.

Persistence Behind Jam

Ani: Jam, like any other startup, wasn’t an overnight success, and there’s still more ahead. What intrigued me was reading about how you went through six iterations before getting it right on the seventh try. That level of persistence is rare. What was your mindset as you kept revamping? Could you walk us through that process?

Dani Grant: It was incredibly challenging. Coming from being a product manager at a company with existing users, I didn’t realize how much harder it is to build something from zero that asks people to trust a new company, change their behavior, and adopt new software. When you’re adding features to an existing product, it’s easier, users are already there. But creating something brand new from scratch? The bar is much higher.

We always aimed to solve the problem of product-engineer collaboration, but we had no clear vision of what the product should look like. There was no reference for it; we had to figure everything out. That’s why it took so many iterations before we landed on the right solution.

We launched eight different versions of Jam, and it was the eighth one that worked. I’m so glad we didn’t give up because being on the other side now feels incredibly rewarding. For founders wondering whether to keep trying or pivot, here's how we know to keep going. We separated product-market fit into two parts: promise market fit and product market fit.

First, we asked, does our promise resonate with people? When we say, "Hey, this is what we can help you do," do people sign up? For us, the answer was yes. Every time we launched a version on Product Hunt, we got a lot of signups and strong emotional responses from people frustrated with the status quo. So, we knew the promise fit the market.

The next step was getting the product to fulfill that promise. People were signing up but not sticking around, which meant we needed to keep improving the product until it matched their expectations. If you’re wondering whether to keep going, ask yourself: are people signing up and telling you they need something like this? If so, you're onto something, and it’s worth continuing.

Building for Builders: The Joy of Jam's Events

Ani: Exactly! Product-market fit is all about the market pulling the product out of you. I also noticed you’ve been hosting a lot of events, especially in the AI space. Can you share how that came about?

Dani Grant: I love building for builders, and meeting other product people is one of the most fun parts of what we do. We’re really lucky that everyone using Jam is working on cool stuff, and we love getting them together for events. We typically do a couple of events a month, usually in San Francisco since I’m based here. They're often demo-based, which is inspired by my time at NYU. Back in 2013, I was part of a club called Tech at NYU, and we organized monthly demo days. It was so exciting to see what people were building, and that’s the vibe we want to bring to Jam’s community.

Branding Lessons from Unlikely Sources

Ani: Really cool! I remember you talking about Jam’s branding at the PLGTM conference, and you mentioned this amazing analogy comparing Taylor Swift's branding during her Eras tour. It’s not something you hear often.

What other unusual inspirations have influenced Jam’s branding or growth?

Dani Grant: Before Jam, I was a VC at Union Square Ventures (USV), and they’re a product-focused firm. They don’t just wait for startups to pitch them, they have their own theses and actively seek companies that fit. One of their key ideas was that brands are a defensible moat. This belief shaped my view of branding.

If you look at big PLG tools like Notion, Figma, and Linear, they all have powerful brands. A brand is essentially a promise. It says, “We do things this way, and you can trust us to keep doing it.” That trust helps with customer acquisition and retention.

And speaking of unexpected inspiration, Taylor Swift is one of the best brand marketers of our generation.

During her Eras tour, she created a brand experience people wanted to be a part of, even traveling across the world for it. We paid attention and thought, what can we learn from that level of brand loyalty? So sometimes, looking beyond the startup world can offer valuable lessons.

Behind the Scenes: Building Jam

Ani: As Jam grows, I’ve noticed you’re doing a lot of new, innovative things. One that really stood out to me was the short video series about how hard it is to build a startup, and the real truths behind the scenes. It’s such a fresh approach compared to the usual webinars and podcasts. How did you come up with this idea? What’s next for that series?

Dani Grant: The idea was inspired by Gimlet Media, a company from around 10 years ago. They produced some big NPR podcasts like This American Life, and when the founder started Gimlet, his first podcast was called Startup. It was an honest behind-the-scenes look at how he was building his company, real conversations about compensation, equity, pitching VCs, everything. I loved it and learned so much.

At Jam, one of the best parts of building is talking to our users, and we often find ourselves swapping tactics and stories about building products and companies. So we thought, why not share that more broadly? We decided to create our own version of that Startup podcast, giving a raw, weekly look at what’s happening behind the scenes at Jam. We want it to be a cathartic listen for others building their own companies.

Growth Strategies at Jam

Ani: Your approach to building in public is a refreshing take! While others stick to traditional formats like tweet threads or LinkedIn posts, you’ve taken it to the next level with candid videos. What other growth strategies are working for you? Is it content, SEO, or performance marketing? Many product-led growth (PLG) companies struggle to grow, yet Jam seems to be hitting milestone after milestone. How are you achieving that?

Dani: Thank you! When we started Jam, my co-founder and I came from product management backgrounds, so we didn’t have formal marketing training. There’s a quote by Sam Altman: "A startup is growth," which added pressure on me.

I read everything I could about how companies like Notion and Figma gained customers and found inspiration in the book Traction by the founder of DuckDuckGo.

What we discovered was that our growth comes from product usage. Our focus is to build a product that people use frequently. While some say first-time founders focus on product and second-timers on distribution, for us, the product itself is the distribution.

The best investment we can make in growth is improving the product to enhance usability and usefulness. In the early days, you must trust that as more users join, they’ll spread the word.

So, my takeaway is: if you're building a PLG product, prioritize creating something people want to use often. Features that boost usage frequency and retention are key to growth.

Ani: I completely agree! Word of mouth and frequent usage are crucial for PLG.

Dani Grant: Exactly! Interestingly, we’ve effectively hit product market fit twice. About a year before landing on the eighth version of Jam, we found a version that users loved and used heavily, but it was only suitable for shipping new landing pages.

While teams would adopt it and use it intensely for about a month, landing pages are only created once or twice a year. This led to a low frequency of use, and we’d find users churning after creating a bunch of “jams.” They’d tell us they’d come back later, but without regular use, it became clear that growth was unlikely.

So, we realized that for a successful PLG motion, we needed a product that promotes frequent usage. It was tough to walk away from something that was finally working, but we had to focus on building a product that would sustain ongoing engagement.

AI Integration at Jam

Ani: That’s interesting! AI is definitely the elephant in the room. How is Jam utilizing AI? Are you using it for marketing, or is it integrated within the product for customers?

Dani Grant: Absolutely! Our engineers use Copilot while building Jam, which has proven incredibly helpful. For example, when onboarding new engineers, they used to rely on others being online to answer questions. Now, with Copilot, they can ask questions about the codebase and get quick answers to unblock themselves.

Another challenge with remote teams is language barriers. Naming variables in code can be tough, as you want something concise yet meaningful. With Copilot, engineers can rely on it to suggest names without getting bogged down in translation or complexity, which saves mental energy.

On the product side, we noticed engineers copying and pasting code from Jam into ChatGPT for debugging. To streamline this process, we integrated ChatGPT directly into Jam, launching a feature called Jam GPT. This AI debugger is always ready to help, eliminating the need to switch tabs and enhancing efficiency.

Ani: That sounds exciting! What new features are you particularly looking forward to at Jam? I saw a social media post about a major speed upgrade for Jira. Are there other features in the pipeline?

Dani Grant: I’m really excited about our speed upgrade! Viraj Jain from Broadcast gave us great advice: when unsure what to ship next, focus on speed. In productivity tools, speed is a crucial feature. If we help users work at the speed of thought, they'll be happier and more productive.

We're overhauling how Jam connects to third-party tools to enhance speed for our power users. This includes improving caching and prefetching so that workflows can be automated instantly, which is coming together beautifully.

Ani: Managing a remote team while shipping fast and growing must be challenging. How do you maintain a work-life balance and ensure everyone is happy and productive?

Dani Grant: There are two key parts to this: productivity in a remote environment and maintaining work-life balance. Our team is incredible, super kind, and always willing to help each other. When someone asks a question, there's always someone ready to jump in, which is crucial. Getting unblocked even once can lead to months of uninterrupted work.

Our team is also quite senior, which helps because they can make decisions quickly without needing as many discussions. We’ve decided to prioritize long-term efficiency over short-term speed. For example, we always write a technical plan and get it approved before writing any code for new features. While this may slow us down initially, it often prevents significant issues and rework later, helping us move faster in the long run.

Ani: I totally relate to that! I’ve been on the other side of quick decisions and constant refactoring, so I get that building a startup is a marathon with short sprints in between. Speaking of your day-to-day, what’s your favorite part? Is it branding, chatting with the team, or maybe even coding?

Dani Grant: My favorite part of the day is definitely our team standup. It’s not your typical standup; we’ve created a format that really works for us. Every day at 9 a.m., the team hops on Zoom, and we spend 15 minutes doing demos. It’s awesome! We get to see what everyone has accomplished in the last 24 hours, and it’s so energizing.

Sometimes people demo small things, like a refactor that makes something faster, or bigger solutions to design problems. Each day gives me a boost from seeing all the brilliant moments from the team.

After our demos, individual pods will have their own 15 to 30-minute syncs to discuss things more specifically. This way, the marketing team can address their needs without getting sidetracked by engineering or sales discussions.

Ani: That’s such a smart approach! I love that you’ve found a way to keep the energy up and foster collaboration.

Dani Grant: Thanks! We didn’t start this way, though. Our standup has evolved through many iterations. Every six months, we do a company retro where we discuss what we should keep, stop, or start doing. In the last retro, someone mentioned that the standup was boring and a waste of time. 

We realized we needed to make a change to keep that daily connection, and this demo format emerged from that discussion. I recommend that other founders also consider doing regular retros to assess how things are going and explore potential changes.

Rapid Fire Round

Ani: Now, one tool-related question: what's something new to your stack that you just can't do without, even if it’s small?

Dani Grant: Here’s a small one, and it might sound silly at first! When creating marketing materials, you want to design in the environment where it’ll actually be seen. Like, you wouldn’t write an email in a Google Doc, because when you finally see it in an email, it might feel off, right? 

The medium really affects the content. Same thing for tweets or LinkedIn posts. We used to draft them in Notion or Google Docs, comment there, and then paste them into Twitter or LinkedIn and it would just look all wrong.

Now, we use Typefully. It lets us draft tweets and LinkedIn posts directly in an interface that looks like the platform itself, and we can all comment in-line. It’s a small tool, but it’s saved us a ton of back-and-forth because we see the post as it would appear live.

Ani: I can relate, I often create Notion documents only to realize they don’t look right when we post them. I’ve started using Typefully with Jason, and I think I’ll use it for brand content too!

Now, what’s one metric that doesn’t really matter but you check every day? For me, it’s my LinkedIn following always curious about how much it’s growing.

Dani Grant: I totally get that! I keep a tab open all day for our daily metrics dashboard on Metabase, which shows the number of users and jams created. I check it maybe 16 times a day!

But the real metric we focus on is “high-frequency users”, those who create jams three out of the last four weeks. This combines user growth, engagement, and retention, ensuring we’re building habits rather than just boosting numbers through ads. It’s a more meaningful measure for our long-term success!

Final Thoughts

Ani: That wraps up my questions, Dani! You've covered so much, including your key metrics. Any final thoughts or shoutouts? I know you’re hiring, want to share where people can find you?

Dani Grant: Thanks so much for having me! It was awesome meeting you in San Francisco and doing this. I love connecting with people who build products and hearing their feedback. If anyone has product insights or feature requests for Jam, feel free to email me at danny@jam.dev. I’d love to hear what you want to see next!

Ani: Amazing! Thank you, Dani, for joining us today. Until next time!

Epilogue

Dani shares her insight on building a brand and product-led growth being powerful strategy:

Key Takeaways

#1 Persistence is key to startup success. It may take multiple iterations and attempts before finding the right product-market fit.

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#2 Branding is important for building a trusted product. A strong brand can help drive customer acquisition and retention.

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#3 Product-led growth is a powerful strategy. Building a product that people use frequently and find valuable is the best growth lever.

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