Meet Jessica Etting and Amanda Roessler

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Etting and Amanda Roessler and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica and Amanda, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Jam was definitely born from a lightning bolt moment between the two of us. We’re both pretty organized (love a good color-coded chart!), but as busy working moms, we were overwhelmed by the chaos of modern family life and the daily mental load–the who’s going where, who’s driving, what needs to get done, what needs to get bought ticker-tape that was running through our heads each day.

One evening, Amanda asked Jess for advice–what tools or apps was she using to stay on top of it all and communicate with her family? Jess told her she’d been looking for years and had never found anything that worked or even came close to being geared toward families like hers. We began grilling our friends, school parents, soccer parents and realized everyone was in the same boat–stretched thin and with no easy tools to use to manage it all. So, we decided to create a solution ourselves, and Jam, the all-in-one family calendar and organization app, was born.

With Amanda’s background in software development and Jessica’s background in marketing (and both of us feeling the pain point of the mental load so much each day!), we felt excited about what we could build together, and our passion to create a product that would really, truly help all the busy families has fueled us to where we are today.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
In the past decade, family life has gotten busier than ever before. Kids have more activities, parents are working more (over 60% of U.S. families have parents who work outside the home), and living in the digital era means parents are barraged with endless information coming at us daily in so many ways (email, text, What’s App threads, sports apps, and of course that random important flyer that came home that ended up under a pile of papers).

Jam is an all-in-one shared calendar and organization app designed for modern family life–and with the mission of dismantling the mental load. We are excited to be part of the burgeoning ParenTech community–we’re all interested in making life easier for parents, but we’re doing it in different and exciting ways. With Jam, we’ve set our sights on the daily organization piece–that family command center, if you will–and making it something in which the whole family can participate.

Going with that, one of the major differentiators of Jam is our own story: two working moms who feel the pain point of the mental load directly, ourselves. When we were innovating the app, we knew it our gut if a certain feature would work for a busy family or not–and if not, then we would continue innovating until we had a solution that we knew would work for busy parents. As a result, Jam is very different than the other calendar and organization platforms out there. We also pushed back on the notion that mom, by default, must be the family secretary, the one responsible for entering every single item into the calendar. That led us to create our Jam On It feature where families can just forward emails to Jam (like the school newsletter or the dance rehearsal schedule) and have all the dates magically pop into the calendar. Finally, we were determined to create a solution you could use with the people in your village–the neighbors, the sports team, or the school parents that you might share driving and coordinate with on a daily basis.

By far the most exciting part of Jam is seeing how engaged our customers are with the app and hearing feedback from the families out there using it! It’s so gratifying to hear that certain features which we championed (like the ability to tag who is going to an event or who is driving) are the same ones that really resonate with parents out there. It’s also so motivating to get feedback with their ideas for new features for Jam, because it speaks to the community we are growing, a place where parents can turn for support in their busy daily lives.

Of course, the journey has not always been easy–and as any entrepreneur knows, remains full of highs and lows on a daily basis. Sometimes you just need to put blinders on and believe in your mission in order to conquer things that are a little anxiety-provoking. It’s also so helpful to have a co-founder to lean on, especially in our case, because we are also sisters who know each other very well. We can talk through issues that come our way and rely on each other for moral support in challenging moments – and celebrate together during the fun ones.

One major lesson we have learned along the way is to not let the perfect get in the way of the good. Both of us can be hard-core perfectionists, and that definitely cost us some time in the very beginning of working on Jam. Sometimes you have to know when to let go, to release the product or the feature into the world, or you’ll never be able to move forward. Another lesson we’ve learned along the way is to not be afraid to make big asks, because people might just come through for you in unexpected ways. We have found the start-up community, and particularly the female founder and funder sub-community, to be so generous with advice and introductions, which have helped us tremendously.

With Jam, we really want to be that support system that families can lean on. Jam is like that supportive family assistant, telling everyone where they need to go, what they need to do, so that everyone’s brains can rest a little easier. We’re truly hoping to do our part to usher in an inter-generational shift of the way family life is done–so it’s not so frequently on one partner’s shoulders and kids grow up with a greater sense of empowerment and responsibility within their families as well. We’re so proud of the brand, product, and community we are building with Jam, and it just keeps getting more exciting every day as more families join us and the Jam product continues to get better and better!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is a fun one because we are born and bred lifelong Angelenos through and through!

First up, a DTLA day (or two!) is obviously a must. We’d be sure to hit up Suey, a fabulous concept shop in the arts district full of recycled treasures, as well as the independent shops in The Row. We’d make sure to also go on a Sunday so we could get the full Smorgasburg experience as well–the open air market is the perfect way to show off L.A.’s innovative food scene.

We’d also have to include a beach day. We grew up going to summer camp in Malibu so it holds a special place in our hearts. We’d start off with breakfast burritos from the Malibu Farm Café before exploring the tidepools and watching the surfers at the beach just north of the Pier. Later, we’d spend some time at the shops at Surf Canyon, which houses some unique local artisan shops, as well as popping into Sea N Soul Surf, where you can get amazing upcycled finds (as well as a surf lesson!). Finally, we’d take a ride up PCH to the nostalgic fave Neptune’s Net at sunset.

If they’re traveling with kids, then we’d have to do a morning show at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, which is just magic for adults and kids alike. We’d follow it with a visit to Spoke Café, a fabulous bike shop café in Frogtown. After lunch, we’d rent bikes and cruise along the Los Angeles River. And for dinner (or just about any meal), we’d hit up Villas Tacos in Highland Park, one of our absolute faves.

L.A. is an industry town, so a day celebrating film and Old Hollywood is a must. A classic screening at the El Capitan (followed by a quick trip to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to see where the first Oscars were ever held) would be a fun way to start–or we’d check out an indie screening at the newly revamped Vidiots, where you can nostalgically browse the DVD racks for hours after. And who says people in L.A. don’t read? Depending on our friends’ tastes, we’d take them to our favorite indie bookshop–of course, Book Soup and The Last Bookstore are amazing, but we’ve been loving Annabelle’s Book Club L.A. in Studio City and The Ripped Bodice in Culver City for some really fun author readings as well. If we end in Culver City, then we’d go by Platform LA for a little shopping, including lots of try-on time at Teller, an impeccably curated women’s boutique, followed by a rooftop meal at Margot.

Finally, we’d round things off with an eastside Highland Park day, of course starting with a breakfast at Kitchen Mouse. We’d hit up our favorite shops including Luca (an organic natural apothecary) and Dotter (cool and chic boutique), a stop at Tropical Juice L.A., and an afternoon perusal through Cookbook market. In the evening, we’d check out a band or two at Lodge Room and a fun DJ set at Goldline before calling it a night!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Yes! Jam was created to help families take on the mental load of daily life, and we don’t think you can even talk about the mental load today without giving credit to Eve Rodsky. Eve is really the person who has helped make this concept universally recognized, first with her best-selling book Fair Play, and now, with the amazing work her Fair Play Institute does.

While the uneven division of the mental load has been an issue for generations, Eve is the one who truly put it into words in a way that felt relatable to so many families today. Even better, Eve makes it feel surmountable. She never just illuminates the problem, she advocates (tirelessly!) for ways to solve it.

She’s also quite generous in creating spaces for women to come together, share ideas, and help one another. If you haven’t read her books, we highly suggest them (and the Fair Play documentary, which was written, directed and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom in partnership with Hello Sunshine, is required viewing in our opinions!)

Website: www.jamfamilycalendar.com

Instagram: instagram.com/jamfamilycalendar.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-koosed-etting-01617810/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-roessler-5167408/

Other: tiktok.com/@jamfamilycalendar 

Image Credits
Brandon Andre