Originally posted on newsletter.jan.ai (Substack) - Written by someone with a vested interest in Jan.ai
A “Non-Engineers” Discovery of Jan
Discovering Jan felt like finding a hidden gem in the tech world. Jan is a bootstrapped company, which to me, is synonymous with sustainable growth.
Jan's philosophy on remote work is another aspect I deeply appreciate. In a world where work-life balance is often just a buzzword, Jan.ai genuinely embraces it. The flexibility to work from anywhere doesn’t just mean comfort- it means trust. It’s empowering to know that the company trusts you to do your job without the need for constant oversight.
What resonates with me the most is the culture of ownership at Jan.
As well as being part of a team where everyone has skin in the game.
Building Out the Growth Function @ Jan
Jan is on a mission to redefine how AI integrates into daily life, focusing on practical, user-friendly use cases. (The assistants framework, embeddable ai, etc., to name a few.)
As a growth contributor, my role is to amplify this vision. Partnering with creators for user-generated content, I aim to tell the Jan story in a way that resonates with real people. It’s about showcasing how Jan fits into diverse lifestyles and workflows.
We’re not here just to race in LLM benchmark tests. We’re building solutions to real problems.
Team Approach to Transparency and Learning
The Jan team believes that the best companies, no matter how big (or small!), are holistically transparent.
How we’re aiming to increase holistic transparency.
- We show you how the sausage is made (being open-source and built-in public- we don’t hide away from the hard questions- and have a clear position on most things from day 1)
The questions Jan gets asked are answered either in our discord straight away, by another contributor or core team member, and then documented for mass knowledge sharing.
We draw inspiration from companies like Posthog, ConvertKit, and HuggingFace, especially for their storytelling.
Their ability to balance compelling narratives around their products and engage with their communities is something we admire and strive to emulate.
They’ve shown that a tech company can excel not just through its features but through the stories it tells.
The Jan Roadmap and Content Strategy
At Jan, the content strategy aims to match to #buildinpublic culture of our engineering function and community. We’ll be testing “raw updates” as content. No polished talking heads, no scripted pitches.
We’re a collective, a community of real people sharing real updates. This approach stems from our understanding of our place in how AI shapes 2024 and beyond.
How Is Jan.ai Different From Other Tools?
We often get asked how we differ from tools like ChatGPT, and this has become a cornerstone of our DNA.
Our answer is simple yet profound- we may not be dramatically different from what you’d expect from AI, but it’s how we deliver and integrate that AI into real life that sets us apart.
The nuts and bolts of it-
- Jan runs 100% offline.
- Jan is AGPLv3 licensed = we welcome forks and commercial use.
- Our team strongly believes that AI needs to be open source, with a “right to repair” (not blocked by proprietary filing systems).
- We highly encourage tinkering with Jan, and celebrate forks = people actually care enough about our work!
- We highly encourage commercial use = people trust us enough for business (tbh, we still have bugs, but with more eyes, all bugs are shallow).
- The one requirement we do have is for forks to contribute back to the Jan ecosystem, and also be AGPLv3 and open source.
- Open Source is participatory and transparent, and any improvements you make can be fed back into the ecosystem.
Jan is about enhancing life, not complicating it with overhyped promises.
Join the Jan Journey
Read our docs and guide -Jan.ai
Check out our repo & public roadmap.
Join us on Discord, or see what we’re building at Jan.ai
Also published here