As our customers and anyone who has been following us for a while knows, Tula was born when my wife Maile opened her yoga studio in Chicago. Our idea when we started, was that it was crazy no software product existed that was focused on serving yoga studios. And in particular, independent yoga studios.
How could this be?
How could an industry with tens of thousands of potential customers be considered too small for a software company to serve?
And so we set out to build a product that was perfect for the needs of an independent yoga studio, often times doing things that allow us to better serve our core audience at the expense of reaching a broader one.
We believe in focus, and the benefits of regular, consistent effort applied over a sustained period of time. We recognize too that no-one ever sees the roots and no-one notices the Oak Tree when it's a sapling. (And yet, it becomes an Oak Tree, doesn't it?) No one celebrates the struggle to break through your first 10, first 100 and first 1000 customers. These victories for company like ours happen in private.
So today I'm happy to talk about a different kind of number that affects our company. After 3 years of running her studio, Maile decided that it was time to think about the longer term future for her business. This morning she just extended her lease - which now runs through 2026.
So that's the number I'm focusing on right now. Two Thousand Twenty Six.
While the companies that we compete with announce multi-million dollar rounds of funding, prepare for IPOs, and compare their valuations against one another, we work every day to serve our customers better, with the continued belief that yoga studios and the students they serve are special enough to warrant their own software.
We never set out to be the biggest company, just the best, for independent yoga studios.
And as I think about the fact that 12 years ago there was no Facebook, no iPhone and no Twitter, I'm so happy that we can tell our customers we'll be walking through whatever technological advancements we see over the next decade right along side you, and that like today, you'll be using the exact same piece of software that the woman I love uses to run her business.
No matter where your business goes or where the technology takes us, I promise you, if you own a yoga studio, you will not find any other company on the planet that will treat you better.
2026, here we come.