Meet Jessica Etting and Amanda Roessler, Co-Founders of Jam

ShoutoutLA sat down with Jam's sister co-founders, Jessica Etting and Amanda Roessler, for the origin story in their own words. It started with a lightning-bolt moment: Amanda, a new mom of two with a software background, asked her sister what app she used to manage the household chaos — and Jessica had to admit that after years of looking, she'd never found one that worked for families like theirs.

They started grilling friends, school parents, and soccer parents, and found everyone stretched thin with no good tools. So they built one. The interview digs into what makes Jam different: a refusal to accept that mom is the default family secretary (which led to the Jam On It email-forwarding feature), and a determination to build something you could use with your whole "village" — the neighbors, the team, the parents you carpool with. It's a warm, LA-rooted look at the people behind the product.

Read the full interview on ShoutoutLA

Frequently Asked Questions

Who founded Jam Family Calendar?

Jam was founded by sisters Jessica Etting and Amanda Roessler — two working moms in Los Angeles who combined backgrounds in marketing and software to build the family-organization tool they couldn't find.

What makes Jam different from other family calendars?

Jam pushes back on the idea that one parent must be the default "family secretary." Features like Jam On It (forward an email and the events auto-populate) and shared access for your whole village — caregivers, carpools, teams — are built to distribute the load.

Related reading: Why we built Jam · How Jam was built for parents, by parents (Dropbox)